act provides for the automatic termination of a national emergency unless within the 90-day period prior to the anniversary date of its declaration the president publishes in the federal register and transmits to the congress a notice stating that the emergency is to continue in effect beyond the anniversary date. in accordance with this provision, i have sent to the federal register for publication the enclosed notice stating that the national emergency with respect to persons who commit, threaten to commit or support terrorism is to continue in effect beyond september 23, 2012. the crisis constituted by the grave acts of terrorism and threats of terrorism committed by foreign terrorists, including the terrorist attacks on september 11, 2001, in new york and pennsylvania and against the pentagon and the continuing and immediate threat of further attacks on united states nationals or the united states that led to the declaration of a national emergency on september 23,

2001, has not been resolved. these actions pose a continuing, unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy and economy of the united states. for these reasons i have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency declared with respect to persons who commit, threaten to commit or support terrorism and maintain enforce the comprehensive sanctions to respond to this threat. signed, barack obama, the white house. . the speaker pro tempore: referred to the committee on foreign affairs and ordered printed. for what purpose does the gentleman from florida seek recognition? >> madam speaker, by direction of the committee on rules, i call up house resolution 773 for its immediate consideration. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the resolution. the clerk: house calendar number 158, house resolution 773. resolved, that at any time after the adoption of this resolution the speaker may, pursuant to clause 2-b of rule

18, declares the house resolved into the committee of the whole house on the state of the union for consideration of the bill h.r. 5544, to authorize and expedite a land exchange involving the national -- involving national forest system land and the district of the superior national forest and certain other national forest system land in the state of minnesota as limited recreational and conservation resources and lands owned by the state of minnesota in trust for the public school system that are largely scattered in checkered board fashion within the boundary waters canoe area wilderness and important recreational scenic and conservation resources, and for other purposes. the first reading of the bill shall be dispensed with. all points of order against consideration of the bill are waived. general debate shall be confined to the bill and shall not exceed one hour equally

divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on natural resources. after general debate, the bill shall be considered for amendment under the five-minute rule. in lieu of the amendment in the nature of a substitute recommended by the committee on natural resources now printed in the bill, an amendment in the nature of a substitute consisting of the text of rules committee print 112-30 modified by the amendment printed in part a of the report of the committee on rules accompanying this resolution, shall be considered as adopted in the house and in the committee of the whole. the bill as amended shall be considered as the original bill for the purpose of further amendment under the five-minute rule and shall be considered as read. all points of order against provisions in the bill as amended are waived. no further amendment to the bill as amended shall be in order except those printed in part b of the report of the committee on rules.

each such further amendment may be offered only in the order printed in the report, may be offered only by a member designated in the report, shall be considered as read, shall be debatable for the time specified in the report equally divided and controlled by the proponent and an opponent. shall not be subject to amendment. and shall not be subject to a demand for division of the question in the house or in the committee of the whole. all points of order against such further amendments are waived. at the conclusion of consideration of the bill for amendment, the committee shall rise and report the bill as amended to the house with such further amendments as may have been adopted. the previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill as amended and on any further amendment thereto to final passage without intervening motion except one motion to recommit with or without instructions. section 2, upon the adoption of this resolution it shall be in order to consider in the house the bill h.r. 5949, to extend

the fisa amendments acked of 2008 for five years. all points of order against consideration of the bill are waived. the amendment in the nature of a substitute recommended by the committee on the judiciary now printed in the bill shall be considered as adopted. the bill as amended shall be considered as read. all points of order against provisions in the bill as amended are waived. the previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill as amended and on any amendment thereto to final passage without intervening motion except one, one hour of debate with 40 minutes equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on the judiciary. and 20 minutes equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the permanent select committee on intelligence. and two, one motion to recommit with or without instructions. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from florida is recognized for one hour.

america online madam speaker, for the purpose of debate only i yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from colorado, mr. polis, pending which i yield myself such time as i may consume. during consideration of the resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only. madam speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks . plsm the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. nugent: i rise today in support of this rule which provides for consideration of two different pieces of legislation. the first of these bills transfers lands within the state of minnesota to the benefit of the state's public school system. the rule provides for consideration of each and every amendment offered by members to the rules committee by the amendment deadline. the next measure of this rule allows for consideration of h.r. 5949, the fisa amendments act re-authorization act of 2012. also called the s.a.a.

re-authorization, this legislation would re-authorize programs that are critical important to our national security. in 2008, f.a.a. has enjoyed a history of strong bipartisan support. now president obama and his administration have made it clear that a clean, long-term extension of f.a.a. is their number one intelligence priority. that's exactly what h.r. 5949 does. recognizing our nation's security cannot and should not wait until an emergency or the 11th hour or rush to re-authorization. the select intelligence and judiciary committees have had hearings on f.a.a.'s re-authorization. they have marked up the bill. they sent it to us months ahead of the expiration deadline. i congratulate both of these committees on their timely and dedicated work for the sake of our own safety. it is with the tools they provide to our intelligence

community that we are able to monitor our nation's enemies overseas. without this support the ability to track those nids who aren't american citizens and want to do harm to this country to the state as it was on september 11 of 2001. i really want to stress that fisa amendments act applies targeting nonu.s. citizens living outside of the united states. and it also enhances civil liberty protections for americans. the government cannot target an american overseas without first obtaining an individualized court order from a fisa court. prior to f.a.a. the government was not required, was not required to obtain an individualized court order to target u.s. persons outside of the united states. this is an expansion of the civil wlibbers made possible by the fisa amendment act.

as a former law enforcement officer, i know how important it is to get the information we need to work on a case. without good reliable information you can't doll your job and protection its citizens, but the information must be attained in the right way. f.a.a. is critical to our intelligence community disposal . i ep courage my colleagues to join me in supporting our national security by voting for fisa amendment act re-authorization act. with that i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from florida reserves his time. the gentleman from colorado. million polis: i thank the gentleman for yielding me the customary 30 minutes. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. polis: madam speaker, i rise in opposition to the rule and the underlying bills, h.r. 5544, the minnesota education investment and employment act, and h.r. 5949, the fisa amendments act re-authorization act. there are significant problems

in both pieces of legislation, however both bills are nevertheless being brought forward under a restrictive process despite the efforts of my colleague, mr. mcgovern, to amend the rule to allow for an open rule and amendments of both debate. unfortunately that motion failed in rules committee. instead this rule is a restrictive process that limits debate and discussion that can improve this legislation. let me briefly address the land swap before getting to the fisa bill. which is of great concern to our civil liberties. we have before us a bill that allows for the exchange of 86,000 acres of minnesota school trust lands within the boundary waters for the forest service lands. it is a critical asset for the recreation industry as well as the most popular wilderness area in our nation's wilderness system. since the bill doesn't even give details about what public land would be lost, we can't even say how bad a daily deal

this is for the american people. it's bad policy to push through profrle land swap bill without adequate public involvement and participation. i strike that in contrast to a bill that i recently introduced, h.r. 370, the conveyance of the forest service lake hill and administrative site. this bill does have accompanying maps that will be made available to the committee so that people can see where the land in question is. it's land that no longer fits the characteristics of forestland. having been deforested near the highway about 40 acres, and it should not be a controversial bill. in direct contrast to this bill, the bill i introduce today has support from the counties, towns, local environmental community, and no local opposition to that bill. on the other hand, mr. cravaack's bill doesn't even identify what forest service parcels would be sold by the federal government and acquired

bye minnesota. this kind of ambiguity in the land exchange bill is unprecedented for a land exchange bill and is not providing adequate information to members of this body to make an informed decision on the underlying bill. now let me address fisa. i take issue with a number of elements of fisa which extends the sweeping electronic surveillance network established under the act of 2008 for five years. i did not support the bill when it came before the house judiciary committee which i serve, and i do not support this bill now. of course everybody in our country understands the serious threat our nation faces from terrorist organizations and foreign nations, but we can't give up. what makes it special for us to be americans in the name of defending our country. our privacy rights should not be eviscerated in the name of national security. many of these concerns are addressable, but unfortunately the bill fails to strike an appropriate balance between protecting our liberties and security.

some of its many shortcomings, including -- include giving the u.s. government the ability to intercept u.s. residents, international phone calls, and email communications without having to even name the people or groups it's monitoring or show its targets are suspected of wrongdoing or terrorism. the target could even be a human lights activist -- human rights activist, country, region, ethnicity. nothing requires the government to identify its surveillance targets at all, nor are there sufficient parameters to make sure they are narrowly taylored to our national security needs. in addition this bill unfortunately allow us -- allows the u.s. to intercept communications without having to identify the location, phone lines, email addresses ton monitored. in he -- to be monitored. in essence the government to use this new law to collect all phone calls between the u.s. and abroad by saying to the fisa court it was targeting someone abroad and that the purpose of the new program is

to collect foreign intelligence information. the lack of judicial oversight is also startling. while the fisa courts have a limited role, it's limited to overseeing the government surveillance activities rather than reviewing individualized surveillance applications, including whether they are sufficiently broad or not. yesterday the chair of our committee, mr. dreier, also mentioned that congress itself has an oversight role in making sure the broad powers given to the federal government under fisa are not abused. however this congress and myself personally have not had any briefing with rega to the use of fisa. now, yesterday representatives of the intelligence committee offered to make those briefings available, but i think the proper order to go about things as members of congress are to make an informed decision about whether these vast powers given to the federal government are being used appropriately, we have a classified briefing first before bringing a five-year extension bill to the floor so that members of congress in the classified study have access to the

information that we need. the information that i need, the information my colleagues need to make an informed decision about whether the proper controls are in place and the extent of the use and/or abuse of the vast powers given under fisa. in addition there is no real limits on how the government uses, keeps, or disseminates the information it collects. the law doesn't say what government can keep and has to get rid of. potentially this could lead to the arkiving of material over decades. . whether it's our u.s. intelligence partners in our countries, whether it's contractors to our own government, we need to have the right controls around where private information is shared. finally i want to address another element of the bill in my initial remarks and that is the indemnity that's given to companies that violate their own terms of service and allow the government to trample privacy rights of thousands of

americans. effectively telecom companies and others that provide the government with enormous amounts of information are effectively completely indemnified so there's no way to hold any of these companies accountable for their activities in violation of their own user agreement signed by two parties, themselves and their customer. there remain noes way to enforce the violation -- remains no way to enforce the violation of that user agreement because there's complete indemnity for those organizations. i think there needs to be a way through the regular court system to hold companies accountable for their activities. letting them off the hook entirely only invites widespread abuse and disregard of their own customer agreements. why bother even having to post or have a privacy policy if it's the whim of the company, not the government, at the whim of the company it can be completely shared with the government in disregard to their own privacy policy because that is the most

effective way for the company to receive a blanket indemnification to any civil liability that might arise from violating privacy laws and/or its own terms of use? again, national security is a critical imperative. we need to make sure that our agencies charged with keeping us safe have the right tools at their disposal to do so. but in the process of making sure that americans are safe, we need to make sure we don't give up what makes it special to be an american. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from florida. mr. nugent: madam speaker, a number of issues that my good friend from colorado brought up cover both bills, actually. one is obviously the minnesota bill as it relates to public education. you know, that was passed by the minnesota state legislature in a bipartisan way. it was also signed by the democratic governor of minnesota in regards that this

particular bill on this particular issue relates to minnesota. with that i'm going to yield to mr. cravaack. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from minnesota is recognized for seven minutes. crack crack -- mr. cravaack: i thank the gentleman for yielding. thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today in support of the rule and the underlying bill, h.r. 5544, the minnesota education and investment employment act. this bill will support the teachers and school children in the state of minnesota, create well-paying jobs in northern minnesota and make boundary waters canoe area for the first time in its existence whole. we have to have a bit of context here. when minnesota became a state in 1858, section 16 and 36 of evy township in minnesota were set aside in trust for the benefit of schools. the state could use, lease and sell the land to raise money for education. in the beginning the state leaders decided to sell the more valuable parcels of school trust lands but around the turn

of the century they realized they needed a more sustainable plan and began putting the school trust lands to productive use for timber. and might bing -- and mining. this has been the goal of the state for over 100 years. and it has productive dividends for the generations of our school kids. as d.f.l. state representative has so ably and educated me on, these lands are not so much owned by the state as held in trust by the state and owned by the school children of minnesota. it is the responsibility of the school trust fund trustees to maximize the return on these lands for the benefit of this fund. this is a critical point. this is part of the minnesota constitution. but in the 1970's the federal government created the boundary water canoe area wilderness. these lands within the boundary waters can be logged, leased or mined in order to preserve the unique wilderness character of this pristine land. thousands of visitors around

the country come to enjoy this beautiful area. but as a result of its creation, minnesota and its students have been faced with an 86,000-acre problem for over 30 years. 86,000 acres of state-owned school trust lands have been locked within the boundaries of the borders of the boundary water canoe area, unable to produce critical funding for minnesota public education. it is imperative we resolve this longstanding problem. our goal is to preserve and protect the boundary waters and allow state-owned school trust lands to raise revenue for minnesota education. unfortunately minnesota school kids have been cheated out of public education funding for over 34 years now. in the past there have been a number of working group studies and resolutions. finally after years of inaction, stalling and tactics by special interest groups, republicans and democrats together in minnesota said enough is enough. i've been referred to as mr. cravaack's bill. that's not the case. this is minnesota's bill.

on march 22 of this year, an overwhelming majority of democrats and republicans from the senate state passed senate file 1750 on a vote of 53-11. on april 3 the house followed suit, passing a bipartisan bill 90-41. on april 27 our democratic governor signed the bill into law. h.r. 5544 executes a bipartisan state plan that the governor signed into law earlier this year. h.r. 5544 would exchange state-owned school trust lands trapped in the boundary water canoe area wilderness for federal government lands in exchange for federal government-owned land outside the boundary water canoe area wilderness. this bill includes important provisions that would ensure minnesotans can maintain their existing hunting and fishing rights within the boundary waters. in addition the bill exempts the land from the process from neep. the land exchange itself would have no environmental impact on any future development and

would still be subject to strict state and federal regulations. a land swap is merely a redrawing of maps and has no environmental impact in and of itself. the mentioned activity, mining and logging, do in fact have environmental impact and would be subject to the full federal and state review. not one environmental protection is lost in the execution of this bill. i want to be very transparent here. one of the hopes of my constituents is to have a bill to create good-paying jobs in the timber and mining industry. the lands list are rich in natural resources. many of them lie in portions of the superior national forest that are already being successfully mined for iron-ore and harvested for timber. it's a working and managed forest. these activities employ thousands of workers and support tens of thousands of other jobs in the region. northern minnesota want and need these opportunities and every american benefits from the steel and lumber that goes

into our cars to our homes. while i generally support the aims of nepa, the state of minnesota has some of the strictest environmental standards in the country and a track record of successful regulation of mining and logging. on the other hand, special interest groups have a track record of abusing the nepa process to sue and delay. i do not want these groups to continue to delay this land exchange preventing minnesota schools from receiving the funding that they need and quite frankly they deserve. the state of minnesota cannot afford to be sued by environmental groups for years. some of those arguing for nepa are in fact arguing that defending lawsuits is an appropriate use of the taxpayer dollars and that it's ok to transfer wealth from the state commerce to special interest groups. interesting to note, many of these special groups aren't even from minnesota. make no mistake, this will be passed in a bipartisan land -- and a bipartisan land exchange is going to get done.

i will not allow special interest groups, acting in bad faith, to abuse the nepa process and use frivolous lawsuits to black and derail a land exchange. if i could trust special interest groups to act in good faith and the federal bureaucracy to act promptly, i would include nepa in this legislation. the teachers and minnesota school kids in minnesota can't wait years, if not decades. currently some of the schools in minnesota have classrooms with over 40 kids and some school districts like mine in north branch have been reduced to a four-day school week. i ask, is that progress? this legislation will generate a lot of funding for our schools and create good-paying jobs. importantly, the minnesota education investment employment act will not eliminate a single acre of boundary waters land. in fact, it would include wilderness acres to the existing boundary water canoe area boundaries while giving minnesota's children land that rightfully and constitutionally belongs to them.

i urge my colleagues to support this rule and the underlying bill. thank you, mr. speaker, and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from colorado. mr. polis: remarkably the underlying bill introduced actually uncovered a permanent earmark that the c.b.o. provides $6 million a year to three minnesota counties. i think that in a congress that is supposed to move past earmarks it's not a good precedent to include that earmark in this residential -- rendition. i'd also like to clarify that govern dayton, while of course asking for the land exchange, doesn't seem to be disagreeing with, that did not ask for nepa to be short circuited. nor did they ask to bypass the normal appraisal process. with that i yield to the gentleman from virginia, the ranking member of the judiciary committee, mr. scott. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from virginia is recognized for three minutes. mr. scott: thank you, madam speaker.

i oppose this rule because it does not allow consideration for amendments to the fisa bill that would strengthen the underlying bill by providing for greater accountability to the republic of otherwise wholly secretive processes. operations of the government must be held accountable to the people. the problem with holding operations under the existing fisa law is that most of the activities under it are conducted in secrecy. the fact that i or other members of congress have access to classified information regarding those secret activities is not sufficient for public accountability. even if i were satisfied by my access to classified information that only reasonable and constitutionally justified actions are being take by officials in secret, i would still feel the need to give greater assurances to the public other than simply trust me, i'm satisfied, so so should you. curiously if i'm not satisfied, there's nothing i could say because it's classified information.

the foreign intelligence surveillanceas act was passed in 1978 to curb abuses in collection and use of federal intelligence information, foreign and domestic, under the original provisions of fisa, procedures for collection of foreign intelligence required the government to show not only that there was probable cause to believe that the target of the intelligence surveillance is an agent of a foreign policy -- power, but also that foreign intelligence gathering is the primary purpose of the collection. under the u.s.a. patriot act of 2002 and beyond the government now only needs to show the probable cause that the target is an agent of a federal government and that the foreign intelligence gathering is merely a significant purpose of that collection. when foreign intelligence collection is not the primary purpose for the collection of information we are left to wonder what the primary purpose of that action might be. the fisa act of 2008 went a

step further. authorizing the collection of massive amounts of information about foreign persons reasonably believed to be outside of the united states without a warrant. with such massive amounts of information being collective and variabley information involving u.s. persons in the united states whose information may not be the target is also being collected. the f.a.a. of 2008 requires executive branch to design targeting procedures which limit the scope of the collection before the government acts and minimization procedures which limit the use of that information after the government collects it. and the fisa court reviews these procedures for legal sufficiency. however, with nearly all of this oversight being conducted in secret, the public has no choice but to take the government at its word. we can do better. my amendment would simply require the executive branch to provide at least some documentation that it uses this authority narrowly, responsibly

and exclusively for foreign intelligence gathering purposes while protecting the material that would be classified. so we should reject this rule in favor of one that allows amendments to strengthen public accountability over the surveillance of americans. thank you, madam speaker, and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from florida. mr. nugent: madam speaker, i certainly do appreciate the gentleman's comments because as a former law enforcement officer i want to make sure that we protect americans. but i'm not so sure i want to protect those in foreign countries that are not americans. those in foreign countries that would do harm to america like they did on this day, on this day 11 years ago. fisa, our good friend mentioned about 2008, but prior to 2008 americans could be entrapped within the fisa context. and in 2008 that changed.

and what it said is that if an american becomes involved in a fisa investigation where their name comes up, the information comes up, that it has to be minimized and then they have to go to a federal judge and the fisa court to get an authorization to do what they need to do as it relates to a warrant to receive and recover that information. . what the president has asked is that we just continue to do what we did from 2008. the protections that were put in place for american citizens that were not there prior to 2008 is to be extended. that's the intent of the re-authorization act of the f.a.a. i continue to reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from colorado. mr. polis: congress will soon leave town again for a long district work period.

we believe it's essential that before we go home we must extend tax cuts for the middle class. if we defeat the previous question here today we'll amend the rule to say that congress needs to stay here to vote on the middle class tax cut act and not go home until we have made sure the middle class tax cut extension becomes law and the tax rates do not increase for mlts of american -- millions of american families. to speak about the previous question, i will yield two minutes to the gentleman from vermont, mr. welsh. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from vermont for two minutes. mr. welsh: i thank the gentleman. there is agreement in this congress that we've got to create jobs in this economy. there is 100% agreement that we should extend tax cuts for 898% -- 98% of the american people. if there is 100% agreement among the 435 members of congress to provide a benefit, a continuing benefit to 98% of

the people, why don't we do it? that's pretty good. the election will allow each side to make its argument about the tax cuts for the 2%. incidentally that 2% would be included. they get their tax cut on the first $250,000 of income. so what we really have is 100% agreement that 100% of the people will get a tax cut. and we have a disagreement about whether 2% of the people will have their tax cut stopped at $250,000. we know that extending those clinton-era tax rates is very important to maintain what is a fragile recovery. if we can step back from our political posturing and acknowledge that in fact we do agree that it's essential to the economy to extend those clinton tax rates, why not do it sooner rather than later? number one, it's no guarantee after the election that it will be easier to do then than it

will be now. it's a roll of the dice on both sides. it would be one thing if the only thing at stake is our political fuhr, or political careers. that's not a big deal. but what's at stake is the american economy. it's about whether people have jobs. whether they have security. whether they can depend on what they need to raise their family. some of those provisions are really important to students. a tax credit if you have a kid in college. some of those are important to whether you are going to be able to continue to itemize your deductions if you are a middle class family. some of those are about the rates of tax that you pay. we agree on all of this. but it is solely within the power of the majority to decide whether to bring this bill to the floor for a vote. we are asking that it be done on behalf of the american people. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from florida. mr. nugent: we heard a lot particularly as it relates to

fisa. i want to clarify and make sure everyone understands, the f.a.a. authorizes the target of nonu.s. citizens who are overseas. they are not citizens of the united states. thus they don't have the protections under the united states congress nor should they. for america to become a target during the investigation, just as in a criminal investigation where i was sheriff, if someone became a target during a wiretap, we then had to identify that person and if we wanted to go after them, if we wanted to eavesdrop on their conversations, we had to get a separate order to allow us to do that. back in 1978 when this was first put in place, guess what? an american was picked up in one of these wiretap operations, there was no requirement to go back and get a separate authorization to go after that american citizen. but 2008 changed that.

2008 put in the protection, a particular protection for american citizens who may get caught up in a fisa investigation in regards to collection of data or voice transmissions. that's the difference. so when people start talking about as it relates to civil liberties, if you live in a foreign country, you don't have civil libertarian -- liberties with us if you are plotting against the united states in a foreign country. and that's the whole identification reference to this is that it's a foreign country and a nonu.s. citizen. with that i continue to reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from colorado. mr. polis: i'd like to inquire of the gentleman from florida how many speakers he has remaining? mr. nugent: i have none. mr. polis: i'm prepared to

close. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. polis: at a time when millions of americans continue to struggle to find work, our federal deficit continues to mount, here we are in congress after a five-week recess doing what? considering a faulty land swap deal that's a bad deal for the general public containing a hidden earmark and controversial along local communities in minnesota? and two, a major re-authorization will under -- bill under a closed process that significantly curtails our liberties as americans. without any opportunities for members of either party to offer suggestions how to reconcile liberty with security. look, congress's to-do list remains long. it's steadily growing. the american public is upset the congress isn't tackling the deficit or debt, jobs, infrastructure, moving forward in investing in our future

economic growth. among congress' unfinished business a tax increase that will hit the middle class unless congress acts. if we defeat the previous question, we will make sure that congress does not all go home before making sure middle class taxes do not go up. in fact, according to the house clerk's office, only 61 bills have become law in 2012. that's the fewest number of bills in 60 years. we only have seven days that this house of representatives is working here in washington in september, and yet this congress continues to refuse to make the hard choices needed to get our economy moving. it's time to roll up our sleeves and get to work if we need to discuss, we do, making sure that we have the ability to protect americans from threats, let's do so in an open way that encourages ideas from both sides. that has a classified briefing which members of congress can

receive the information we need to suggest how or if fisa needs to be changed before it's authorized for a carte blanche five additional years. it's important to reject both these underlying rules and these underlying bills. it's time to focus on job creation, deficit reduction, and tax reform. not trying to rush to the floor an earmark, land swap with no map for minnesota, for what could only be taken to be purely political reasons, as well as under a closed process a bill that many of us have grave concerns that undermines our right to privacy as americans. i urge a no vote on the rule and the two flawed underlying bills. i ask unanimous consent to insert the text of my amendment to the rule in the record along with extraneous material

immediately prior to the vote on the previous question. mr. speaker, i urge my colleagues to cast a thoughtful vote and vote no on the rule and the bill and defeat the previous question. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from florida. mr. nugent: madam speaker, i have heard my good friend from colorado and maybe he wasn't serving in the judiciary committee this summer, but prior to this being vetted within the judiciary committee, all the members there were offered a classified briefing as relates to fisa. every member had the opportunity to attend that. i'm not sure if mr. polis was a member of that judiciary committee at the time, but it was offered to all. as a matter of fact yesterday at the rules committee the ranking democratic member of the intelligence committee, mr. ruppersberger, pointed out to the rules committee that at any

time, any member of this house can request a classified briefing. any member. he wanted to make sure that this didn't become a political football. he admonished all of us not to make this a political statement but to do what's right for this country. i hear time and time again from my good friend as this relates to civil liberties of americans , if you look back to 2008, that was rectified because prior to that i would tell you that the civil liberties of americans were in jeopardy, but in 2008 that was corrected. and it's continued on in this re-authorization of 2012. once again the fisa court is set up of -- comprised of u.s. district federal judges. and they also have a right to appeal to a court of review made up of federal judges.

the information as mr. ruppersberger said is if you want a briefing, request it. if you want additional information in a classified setting, request it. every member has an opportunity. as a matter of fact in the intelligence committee there wasn't one opposing vote. democrats and republicans alike came together and said this is what's important to keep america safe. they don't want to have another 9/11 on their watch. and at the same time we want to protect all americans. when people start throwing this around and say this is an assault on american civil liberties, that's just not right. it's not correct. it's wrong. because this bill does everything to protect americans from intrusion into their private lives. it forces the federal government to go back to court

if it uncovers through these surveillance techniques activities by american citizens who are doing something wrong as relates to terrorism against this country. it gives them a process to do it because prior to that, prior to 2008, they could do it without abandon. they could wind up collecting any information on u.s. citizens. in 2008 that changed and rightfully so. there should be constraints on the federal government. heard also that there's no checks and balances. well, that's just not true. every 60 days, every 60 days there's a report done reference to the fisa in regards to the intercepts. twice a year is an automatic report that has to be generated that goes to congress. and at any time, judiciary and the intelligence committee, can hold hearings and they do as

relates to classified information as relates to fisa. that's oversight. that's what we are supposed to do. and the reason they say this is secret, guess what? it's not secret but it's kept under wraps because of this. if we tell our techniques to our enemies, then guess what? they'll figure out a way to circumvent so they can get the information, pass the information, and conspire against this country. that's the reason in law enforcement we don't give up our techniques because the bad guys will figure it out. they are pretty smart folks. what we don't want to do is give them time on their hands to assault the united states of america, kill our citizens, kill and injure those first responders and pit our military -- put our military at risk.

this is directed to those that live outside this country, those that are not american citizens. let me make this perfectly clear. besides it would love to inflame different people as it relates to this, this has nothing to do with american citizens except if they do get caught up in the conversation with someone of a foreign national, that it does have to go back to court to get that specific authorization to record or transmit that information as relates to them. madam speaker, i encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this rule and bring these two very important pieces of legislation to the house floor for a vote. if there's one duty that's inherently part of our federal government's core mission, it's to provide for our national security. none is more important than making sure that this republic survives. the fisa amendments

re-authorization is a key tool in keeping our nation safe. we hear it from both sides of the aisle that testified in front of the rules committee yesterday. as we continue to fight terrorists around the world, who want nothing more than to harm our nation, the f.a.a. gives our intelligence community the fools they need to track these enemies overseas and that's the important word, overseas. we can't give up that fight, which is why we need to keep using the information we have access to. the fisa amendment act re-authorizes the need for securityle with civil liberty protections with americans living abroad. keeps us safe at home while protecting americans living around the world. i encourage my colleagues on both side of the aisle to continue on bipartisan support in supporting the f.a.a. and vote for this bill. with that i yield back the balance of my time and i move the previous question. the secretary: the question is on ordering the previous question, on the resolution. so many as are in favor say

aye. -- the speaker pro tempore: the question is on ordering the previous question. snome, those opposed will vote no. the aye vs. it. the gentleman from colorado. mr. polis: on that i request a recorded vote. the speaker pro tempore: does the gentleman ask for the yeas and nays? mr. polis: yes. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays are requested. those favoring a vote by the yeas and nays will rise. a sufficient number having arisen, the yeas and nays are ordered. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20 , further proceedings on this question will be postponed. . pursuant to clause 12-a of rule 1, the chair declares the house in recess for a period of less

>> we have an excellent panel of witnesses. i would just -- i remind the committee and the witnesses as we. in remembrance of this day,

9/11, 11 years ago, we have some pictures on the back of this committee room which remind us all each and every day why this committee was even formed. the main committee and certainly our subcommittees as well. there will be a commemorative ceremony at 11:00 today. all the members of congress will be gathering. the house and senate at the east center staircase for the congressional remembrance ceremony marking the observance of september 11, 2011. this committee will be certainly joining our other colleagues and we'll have opening statements for myself and ranking member and then the statements of the -- of our witnesses and we'll see where we are in time because we'll have a hard break probably at about 10 until 11:00 for folks. our witnesses today are kelly ann walter, deputy assistant secretary for policy at the department. kevin mccullen, acting assistant commissioner and the office of field operations and custom and

border potential. john woods, assistant direct for national security investigation at i.c.e. and the deputy assistant secretary for visa services at the department of state. and charles edward, the acting inspector general at the department of homeland security. 11 years ago today, 19 terrorists, cowards, successfully penetrated our border and security defenses and hijacked four planes to conduct a terrible, terrible attack against nearly 3,000 innocent people. that asket violence is the very reason the department of homeland security exists and while this committee was created to prevent another terrorist attack on our homeland. we should never forget, of course, what happened on that tuesday in september when so many of our fellow americans died tragically or failed to remember the first responders as well. all of the victims of that tragedy. one of the ways i think we can honor those who lost their life that terrible day is make sure

an attack like that never happens again. to harden our defenses and take into account the hard lessons that we learned that day. among the most important that the attackers exploited was the border security. the hijackers actually tapped through united states border security a. kind total of 68 times. the relative ease with which the terrorists evaded detection by presenting fraudulent documentation, passports, and false statements on visa applications, gave false statements to border officials, and certainly the failure to watch lists known al qaeda operative became missed opportunities to stop those attacks. it's highlighted, certainly the need to close the hole exploited by the 9/11 terrorist by strengthening our border security and visa issuance polcy. curtailing the ability of terrorists to travel to the us us can be one of the most effective counterterrorism denying terrorists freedom to

travel limits their ability to plan, exercise, or carry out attacks on our homeland. as the 9/11 commission report noted, it said in the report, for terrorists travel documents are as important as weapons. which is a very interesting statement, i think. building on that key insight we strengthen our outer ring of border security to conduct more rig dangerous checks, and continuously check visa holders against a terrorist watch list. we pushed our border out by conducting more checks overseas before passengers even board an airplane. or present themselves to the officer at any of our ports of entry. a layered approach that increases our chances of preventing terrorists from ever coming to america. today we collect more information on foreign travelers that allows c.d.p. -- c.p.b. to use -- c.b.p. to use complex roles which allows agents to find any problems with travel documents that might raise a red flag. and programs as the immigration

advisory program and i.c.e.'s visa security unit that station officers and agents overseas are critical components of our success in keeping those with terrorism links and other high-risk passengers off planes that are bound into the united states. without question we have made enormous progress limiting the ability of terrorists to travel to the u.s. since 9/11, but certainly the incident of the christmas day bomber, that demonstrated that we still had some significant gaps in our visa vetting system. continually vetting visa electronic system for travel authorization, holders against our watch list is a welcome improvement but we'll be interested to who are how we can further leverage the targeting systems to vet is visa applicants before it is issued. improvements to watch listing processes has increased the ability of official to keep those individuals that concern us out of the country. we still need to do better.

we'll be interested to hear from the witnesses on how we vet visa applicants known to the intelligence community and how we resolve visa issuance through the security advisory opinion process. unlike several of this subcommittee's previous hearings where we used the challenges of tracking down visa overstays and the delay in rolling out a reliable exit system that allows department of homeland security to determine if a visa holder has departed in accordance with the terms of their visa, this hearing is really focused on the front end. the front end of the visa process. we certainly believe that a viable exit system, of course, is vital to our national security efforts but it is incumbent on the department of homeland security and the department of state to also focus their efforts on preventing terrorists from coming into the country in the first place. also look forward to hearing from the inspector general in regards to their recent work which identified challenges with u.s. visits and multiple names a gap that needs to be swiftly

corrected to prevent fraud and exploitation by any terrorist. certainly contrary to what some have suggested, al qaeda, although diminished in capability thanks to the wonderful work of the heroism and professionalism and bravery by our men and women in uniform and our allies, still they are a lethal enemy intent on attacking the homeland. vigilant is is one of the best tools at our disposal to prevent terror travel. that's why we are here today to exam those gaps, vulnerability in the immigration visa system and how they have addressed in the period since 9/11. the chair now recognizes the ranking member for his opening statement. >> thank you, madam chairman. i join chairman miller and my colleagues in remembering those who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks much september 11, 2001. our thoughts and our prayers are with them and their families today the 11th anniversary of this tragedy and every day our prayers are with them. one way we can honor those who died is do our utmost to prevent

terrorist from traveling to our countries to do us harm. the 9/11 hijackers did not sneak into the country across our land borders but rather entered the united states via an airplane carrying visas. the attempted bomber of an airline on christmas day, 2009, was a stark reminder of the vulnerabilities in the visa process. the department of homeland security and the department with the direction of congress have taken important steps to strengthen visa security and prescreen air passengers traveling to the united states. with d.h.s. the u.s. immigration customs enforcement, i.c.e., has expanded its visa security program at our overseas embassies providing an important additional layer of security in visa securities and security matters. similarly the u.s. customs border protection advisory program officers at foreign airports and strengthened its ability to identify travelers of concern bound for the ubs.

-- united states. it also enhances efforts at the national targeting center to combat terrorist travel. this program requires investments in personnel, technology, and resources so it is imperative that congress continues to provide d.h.s. the funding it needs to carry out its mission. today i look forward to hearing about what security enhancements have been made since the subcommittee met last year on this important issue, as well as what remains to be done. a related issue that i continue to find is recalcitrant countries, certain individuals subject to orders of removal from the united states, are often delayed due to their respective government refusal to accept the return of their nationals or use lengthy delay tactics. i have raised this issue in previous hearings and i appreciate the difficult and delicate nature of this issue but we must address this issue and we look forward to working on this issue.

i look forward to hearing more from the department and ice about recommended steps for improvement or any steps you might have, any ideas you might have, please work with our committee. i certainly thank chairman miller for having this particular hearing. her leadership. and i appreciate all the witnesses for joining us here. i look forward to your testimony. i yield back the balance of my time. >> i thank the gentleman and other committee members are reminded any opening statements they may have is can be entered into the record. what i'll do is interdues each one of the witnesses and then we'll start over here. give a short biohere. first of all, as i mentioned, we are joined by kelly ann walt, currently serving for the department of public security kreining office. she began working in the s.e.o. in 2007 where she is currently responsible for setting policy and direction that harmonizing the variety of department of

homeland security screening programs and investments. mr. kevin mccullen is the acting assistant commissioner at the u.s. customs and border protection where he's responsible for joferinge cease c.b.p.'s anti-terrorism, immigration, anti-smuggling, trade compliance, and operations at 20 major field offices, 331 ports of entry, and 70 locations in over 40 countries internationally. mr. john woods is the assist isant director at u.s. immigration and customs enforcement where he overseas the national security investigations division within homeland security investigations. as chief of this 450 person headquarters division, he manages a $160 million operation 58 budget and overseas h.s.i.'s investigative, regulatory and technological programs targeting transnational, national security trusses arising from travel trade and financial enterprises. the deputy assistant secretary for visa services at the united states department of state. in his position he oversees the

visa office in washington, d.c. two domestic processing centers, as well as visa operations at over 200 embassies and consequence late abroad. he's previously worked as special assistant to the assistant secretary of state for consular affairs, in nassau, bahamas and warsaw and poland as well. quharls edwards is the acting inspector general, he has over 20 years experience in the federal government. held leadership positions at several agencies including the transportation security administration, u.s. postal service office of inspector general, and the united states postal service. the chair would recognize miss walter for her opening testimony. >> chairman miller, ranking member cuellar, and distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to highlight our work on preventing terrorist travel. i head the screening coordination office where we

facilitate -- we are the destination point for screening initiatives as well. as the 9/11 commission pointed out, targeting terrorist travel is one of the most powerful weapons we have to counter terrorist operations. today's environment is complex and multifaceted so it is imperative we employ layers of security throughout the travel continuum, to identify individuals that may pose a risk before they reach the united states. we recognize there is no one size fits all approach to security. our approach includes close coordinate with counterterrorism, law enforcement, and public security ports, the private secretary isor, and our state, local, tribal, territorial, and foreign partners. >> all of this hearing later in our program schedule. watch it any time in the video library. c-span.organize. we'll take you back live now to the house floor. a couple votes including a vote on the rule for consideration of the minnesota investment improvement act dealing with federal and state lands in

minnesota and re-authorization of fisa. spending the conscious suspending the rules and passing h.r. 4364. the first electronic vote will be conducted as a 15-minute vote. remaining electronic votes will be conducted as five-minute votes. the unfinished business is the vote on ordering the previous question on house resolution 773 on which the yeas and nays were ordered. the clerk will report the title of the resolution. the clerk: house calendar number 158, house resolution 773, resolution providing for consideration of the bill h.r. 5544, to authorize and expedite a land exchange involving national forest system land in the district of the superior national forest and certain

other national forest system land in the state of minnesota. that has limited recreational and conservation resources and lands owned by the state of minnesota in trust for the public school system that are largely scattered in checkerboard fashion within the boundary waters canoe area wilderness and have important recreational scenic and conservation resources and for other purposes. and providing for consideration of the bill h.r. 5949, to extend the fisa amendments act of 2008 for five years. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on ordering the previous question. members will record their votes by electronic device. this will be a 15-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

the speaker pro tempore: op this motion the ayes are 232. the noes are 177. the previous question is ordered. the question is now on the adoption of the resolution. this will be a -- those in favor say aye. those opposed, no.

in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. mr. hastings: on that i ask for a recorded vote. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman asks for a recorded vote. a recorded vote is requested. those favoring a recorded vote will rise. a sufficient number having arisen, a recorded vote is ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a five-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 233. the nays are 179.

the resolution is adopted. without objection, a motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. on the motion of the gentlelady from illinois, mrs. biggert, to suspend the rules and pass h.r. 4264, as amended, on which the yeas and nays are ordered. the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 4264, a bill to help ensure the fiscal solvency of f.h.a. mortgage insurance program of the secretary of housing and urban development, and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: the question is, will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill as amended. members will record their votes by electronic device. this will be a five-minute vote.

[captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperatn with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 402. the nays are 7. 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative,

the rules are suspended, the bill is passed, and without objection the motion to reconsider is thration. -- is laid upon the table. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, the chair will postpone further proceedings today on motions to suspend the rules on which a recorded vote or the yeas and nays are ordered or on which the vote incurs objection -- or on which the vote incurs objection under clause 6 of rule 20, record votes on postponed questions will be taken later. . the house will be in order. the house will be in order. members, please take your conversation off the floor. the house will be in order.

the house will be in order. the house will be in order. members will clear the floor. take their conversations off the floor. for what purpose does the gentleman from ohio seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i move hat house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 4305rk the child and elderly missing alert program as amended. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: union calendar number 467, h.r. are 4305, a bill tooth rise the attorney general to provide a grant to

assist federal, state, tribal and local law enforcement agencies in the rapid recovery of missing individuals. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from ohio, mr. chabot, and the gentleman from virginia, mr. scott, each will control 20 minutes. the house will be in order. the house will be in order. if members wish to continue their conversation, please take them off the floor. the chair recognizes the gentleman from ohio. mr. chabot: thank you, mr. speaker. i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on h.r. 4305 as

amended, currently under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. chabot: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, the house is still not in order. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is correct. the house is not in order. members are reminded not to traffic the well. the gentleman from ohio. mr. chabot: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise in support of h.r. 4305, a commonsense bipartisan bill which would increase resources for local law enforcement to aid in the recovery of missing children and elderly adults. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is correct. the house will be in order. members are reminded to take their conversations off the floor. the gentleman from ohio may continue. mr. chabot: thank you, mr. speaker. i'd also like to thank my colleague, mr. deutch of florida, for his diligent work

on this bill. every 40 seconds a child goes missing. throughout the united states an average of 2,000 children under the age of 18 are reported missing every day and as many as 800,000 each year are reported missing. although many of our children are at risk, the risk for children living with autism is even greater. about one in four parents have children living with autism spectrum disorders have reported that their children have gone missing long enough to cause significant concern about their safety. in addition health care re-- reports show three out of five americans living with alzheimer's disease will sometimes wander from their location and may be unable to find their way back home. the need to locate missing children and seniors in some instances in the first hours of the disappearance is vital. unfortunately most law enforcement agencies lack the appropriate resources to knock on every door in the community in every unfortunate crisis.

further, although the amber and silver alerts are sometimes successful alert programs, there remains a crureb collapse of time between the point when a child or elderly adult is first reported missing and when one of these services can be utilized. this important legislation would help solve this problem by employing targeted telephone and cellular alerts within minutes of a missing person report to residents and businesses in the area where the person was last seen. in fact, as many as 1,000 calls can be made in merely 60 seconds, a vital asset in reaching the greatest number of neighbors in the early critical moments of a search. targeted alert programs are typically available to law enforcement nationwide and they're multilingual. the regional databases used for alerts can take years to build and contain an accumulation of public residential telephone numbers as well as volunteer cellular phone numbers. these programs are able to

utilize computer mapping and enhance satellite imagery to select the targeted calling area. to date as many as 8,500 law enforcement agencies have received training with targeted alert programs. my legislation would support these programs which assist federal, state and local law enforcement agencies in the rapid recovery of missing children and elderly persons while saving tax dollars. the automated alert systems are free for local law enforcement to use, saving thousands of dollars on a traditional search which could require as many as 10 officers on the ground at any one time. a recent success story in my district highlights the value of a targeted telephone and cellular alert program. on february 1 of this year a 9-year-old girl was reported missing from her home. after she went to walk her dog and did not return. a sergeant of the hammle ilton

county sheriff's department contacted a child is missing. and provided the girl's description to be distributed via telephone alert. nearly 1,700 alert calls were made asking that anyone with information contact the police. according to the case follow-up report, after the alert was activated, several calls were received immediately, some containing valuable tips. the police used these tips to locate the girl safely, approximately one-half mile away interest her home in less than an hour after the activation of the alert. when it comes to protecting the most vulnerable among us, it's important that we first equip our law enforcement at the local level. h.r. 4305 would facilitate the partnership of privately run programs with law enforcement and members of the community to safely recover missing individuals, whether they're minors or whether they may be in the case of alzheimer's, for example, senior citizens. i urge my colleagues to support this straightforward bipartisan

legislation, once again i'd like to thank mr. deutch for his leadership on this issue and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from virginia. mr. scott: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. scott: mr. speaker, i rise in support of h.r. 4305, the child and elderly missing person -- alert program. this important measure will assist law enforcement agencies to address the terrifying experience of when a child, elderly person or other family member or friend goes missing. the number of individuals who go missing each year is staggering. for example, a child goes missing almost every 40 seconds in the united states, that's about 800,000 children reported missing every year. the adults suffering from alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia also become missing persons. these diseases cause many of their sufferers to become disoriented and lost. and because of their condition these individuals are often

unable to assist first responders in finding their way back to their caregivers. it is currently estimated that about 5 1/2 million americans suffer from alzheimer's disease and by 2050 that number may go up to 16 million. locating a missing individual must be done quickly. research has shown that the time is of the essence with missing persons. the first hours of disappearance are the most vital. according to the study by the attorney general of washington state and the u.s. department of justice, 74% of children abducted and murdered were killed within the first three hours. half of elderly adults who wander from their homes suffer serious injury or death if not found within 24 hours. accordingly alerts to law enforcement in those crucial first few hours after a person goes missing is obviously very, very critical. h.r. 4305 facilitates targeting telephone and cellular alerts

to residents and businesses in the area where the person was last seen. the residents and businesses are able to opt out if they choose to but most of the people obviously want this information. h.r. 4305 will help provide meaningful aid to law enforcement in recovering missing children and elderly people and the disabled. i urge my colleagues to support the legislation and reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from ohio rise? mr. chabot: mr. speaker, we'll continue to reserve our time. we have no additional speakers at this time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields? the gentleman from virginia. mr. scott: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from florida. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. >> thank you, mr. speaker. i thank the gentleman from virginia. i rise today to urge pass amming of h.r. 4305, the child and elderly missing alert program act of 2012. mr. deutch: this bill which i had the pleasure of introducing with my friend, mr. chabot of

ohio, will help law enforcement agencies nationwide safely recover missing children and elderly adults. as mr. chabot highlighted, every 40 seconds a child goes missing in america, with over 800,000 children reported each and every year. the panic that takes over when a child cannot be found is a feeling that every parent hopes and prays they will never have to experience. we know that every second is precious. in fact, in tragic cases involving abducted and murdered children, research supported by the department of justice shows that 74% were slain within the first three hours. likewise the families of adults suffering from alzheimer's disease or another form of dementia feel that same anxiety when a loved one goes missing. they're not just in danger of injury but are going too long without medications that they rely on. in fact, half of elderly adults who wander from their residence suffer serious injuries or death if not located within 24

hours. though the amber and silver alert programs are invaluable tool for law enforcement to alert communities of missing persons, too often they're not activated until precious time has passed. whether young or old, we know that the ability to locate missing persons within the first few hours of their disappearance is vital. by passing h.r. 4305, we can help law enforcement agencies nationwide employ technology pioneered by a south florida woman who started an organization called the child is missing. a child is missing helps police and rescue teams get the word out fast. it is the only organization that assists in all types of missing cases, including abduction, runaways or individuals that lose their way. when a person is reported missing to law enforcement, a child is missing utilizes the latest satellite technology to place 1,000 emergency phone calls every 60 seconds to residents and businesses in the area where the person was last

seen. in fact, just this year a child is missing markets -- marks its 1,000th successfully assisted recovery. this proven technology works, it saves lives and by passing this legislation we can help law enforcement successfully recover missing persons nationwide. thank you, mr. speaker, and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from ohio. mr. chabot: mr. speaker, we'll continue to reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman continues to reserve. the gentleman from virginia. mr. scott: mr. speaker, i have no further requests for time and yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from ohio. mr. chabot: thank you, mr. chairman. i yield myself such time as i may consume. i'd just like to conclude by saying that this is i think a very important program. every parent i think is always afraid of that potential nightmare that one of their children goes missing and all of us that have seen -- senior grandparents, for example, know how prevalent alzheimer's can be in the senior community and

if one of those individuals goes missing, this is a program that could help those at a very early age, those later in their lives and i think it's a great program. i would urge my colleagues to support it. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 4305 as amended. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? mr. smith: mr. speaker, i move that the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 2800, to amend the violent crime control and law enforcement act of 1994 to reauthorize the missing alzheimer's disease patient alert program. as amended. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: union calendar number 469, h.r. 2800, a bill to amend the violent crime control and law enforcement act of 1994 to reauthorize the missing alzheimer's disease patient alert program -- to re-authorize the missing alzheimer's' disease patient alert program. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from texas, mr. smith, and the gentlewoman from california, ms. waters, each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas. mr. smith: i ask unanimous

consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on h.r. 2800, as amended, currently under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. myth smith mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. -- mr. smith: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. smith: mr. speaker, h.r. 2800, the missing alzheimer's' disease patient alert program of 2012 is sponsored by the gentlewoman from california, ms. waters. i thank her for her work on this issue. alzheimer's disease is a serious condition that is becoming more and more prevalent. the disease affects as many as five million people in this country or one in eight older americans and a new person develops alzheimer's every 69 seconds. this pace is expected to increase with time. it is estimated that more than half of the people with alzheimer's or other types of dementia will become lost from their families or caretakers at some point. many of these people cannot

remember their name, their family members or their address. this makes returning home safely difficult for law enforcement officers and good samaritans. as is true whenever a person goes missing, time is of the essence when attempting to locate a lost alzheimer's patient. one study found in almost 50% mortality rate for alzheimer's patients who are not found within 24 hours of becoming lost. to address the problem of missing alzheimer's patients, congress created the missing alzheimer's disease patient alert program in 1996. this justice department program provides grants to locally based organizations to protect and locate missing patients with alzheimer's disease and related dementia. congress has appropriated money for this program every year since its creation. the justice department has provided grants to several programs, including the alzheimer's association safe return program. in this program people with alzheimer's and dementia are registered in a database and

receive a bracelet that indicates the individual is memory impaired. the bracelet also includes a 24-hour emergency response number to call if the person is found wandering or has a medical emergency. the alzheimer's association reports a 99% success rate for reuniting enrolled missing individuals with their caretakers through the safe return program. h.r. 2800, the missing alzheimer's disease patient alert program re-authorization act of 2012 rethost this program at $1 -- reauthorizes this program at $1 million a year for five years. this reflects the 2012 appropriations level. h.r. 2800 helps to ensure that people with alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia are returned safely home when they become lost. again, i want to thank the gentlewoman from california, ms. waters, for her leadership on this issue and i encourage my colleagues to join me in support of this bill and i'll

reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentlelady from california. ms. waters: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. ms. waters: i thank chairman lamar smith for his support for h.r. 2800, the missing alzheimer's disease patient alert program re-authorization act. this bill re-authorizes a small but effective program that assists local law enforcement and protects vulnerable people with alzheimer's disease. i appreciate the chairman's willingness to work with me and move this bill forward. alzheimer's disease currently affects an estimated 5.3 million americans. and that number will multiply in the coming decades as our population grows. the alzheimer's association estimates that 7.7 million americans will have alzheimer's by the year 030, and 11 million to 16 million americans will have the disease by the year 2050. one great risk for alzheimer's

patients is wandering away from home. according to the alzheimer's association, more than 60% of alzheimer's patients are likely to wander. wanderers are vulnerable to dehydration, weather conditions, traffic hazards and individuals who prey on vulnerable seniors. up to 50% of alzheimer's patients who wander will become seriously injured or die if they are not found within 24 hours of their departure from home. wanderers often cannot remember who they are, where they live and cannot assist law enforcement officials and other first responders who try to help them. the missing alzheimer's patient alert program is the department of justice program that provides competitive grants to nonprofit organizations to assist in paying for the cost of planning, designing, establishing and operating programs to protect and locate missing patients with alzheimer's disease and related

dementia. these grants have local communities and public safety agencies quickly identify persons with alzheimer's disease who wander or who are missing and reunite them with their families. the program was originally authorized in 1996 but has been operating under an expired authorization since 1998. h.r. 2800 re-authorizes the program and authorizes $1 million per year in appropriations for fiscal years 2013 through 2017. this authorization level will allow the program to continue to operate at the funding year 2012 funding level for the next five years. this program is extremely cost-effective. an appropriation of simple low $1 million could easily result in millions more in savings by the federal government by

allowing more alzheimer's patients to remain at home with their families, thereby reducing nursing home utilization and saving medicare and medicaid expenses. h.r. 2800 is co-sponsored by 18 members of congress, including congressman chris smith and congressman ed markey, the co-chairs of the bipartisan congressional task force on alzheimer's disease. the bill is also supported by both the alzheimer's association and the alzheimer's foundation of america. this program saves law enforcement officials valuable time and allows them to focus on other security concerns. it also reduces unintentional injuries and deaths among alzheimer's patients, brings peace of mind to their families and thus allows more alzheimer's patients to remain at home with people who love them. so i urge my colleagues to support this bill, and i would reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves. the gentleman from texas. mr. smith: mr. speaker, we have no further speakers on this

side so we'll reserve the balance of our time as well. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentlelady from california. ms. waters: i have no further requests for time. i would -- the speaker pro tempore: does the gentlelady yield back? ms. waters: yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. mr. smith: mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time as well. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 2800, as amended. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed, and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise? mr. smith: mr. speaker, i move that the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 6185, local courthouse safety act of 2012, as amended. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of

the bill. the clerk: h.r. 6185, a bill to improve security at state and local courthouses. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from texas, mr. smith, and the gentleman from virginia, mr. scott, will each control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas. mr. smith: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on h.r. 6185, as amended, currently under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. smith: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. smith: mr. speaker, first of all, i'd like to thank our judiciary committee colleague, mrs. adams of florida, for her work on this issue to make america's courthouses safer. this bipartisan, bicameral bill passed the senate judiciary committee by unanimous consent last may. and before i yield to her, i do want to urge my colleagues to support this bill and thank mrs. adams, again, for all of her work that brought us to

this point we are here today, and i'll yield the balance of my time, as much time as she may consume, to the gentlewoman from florida, mrs. adams. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. mrs. adams: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise in support of h.r. 6185, the local courthouse safety act of 2012, because it will give local courthouses the resources to enhance their security and to do so at no cost to the federal taxpayer. my bill would allow for metal detectors to be provided for local courthouses to enhance security. like other regions throughout our nation, central florida has seen its share of courthouse attacks. shortly before i joined the orange county sheriff's office, a courthouse shooting occurred. an armed gunman by the name of thomas, walked in the orange county courthouse with a 12-gauge shotgun, an assault rifle and a reinvolver, all loaded with live ammunition -- revolver, all loaded with live

ammunition. a 60-year-old veteran who retired from the navy was killed on that day. barey daulton, a 53-year-old father of six was shot in the face and left paralyze from the shooting. he died seven years later. mark parker was only 19 years old at the time of the shooting. he survived the shooting but paralyzed from the shoulders down and had to spend the rest of his life confined to a wheelchair. i introduced the local courthouse safety act because the thing this bill does is important to me and most americans. i know the families of the bailiffs who lost their lives as a result of the violence that day in the orange county courthouse and remain friends with officer parker until he passed away a few years ago. and i am deeply aware of the grief they've had to live with all of these years. since september, 2010, there has been about one shooting per month at a local courthouse. so even though the shooting in orange county happened 30 years ago, courthouse shootings are still happening all over this country and innocent people are still dying.

those who are exercising their constitutional right of seeking justice in our courtrooms should not have to fear for their safety and neither should they -- neither should our law enforcement officers, judges, advocates and court personnel. it's my hope this bill will prevent horrific and senseless incidents from happening in our local courthouses. i want to thank my colleagues on the judiciary committee for recognizing we need to take courthouse security seriously and for joining me in this bipartisan effort to help prevent violence in local courthouses across this country. we need to give sheriffs and local courthouses access to the training, equipment and resources they need to improve security. so i urge support for the bill and yield the balance of my time back to the chairman. thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves. the gentleman from virginia. mr. scott: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. scott: mr. speaker, i rise in support of h.r. 6185, the local courthouse safety act.

this measure will provide critical assistance to state and local governments to provide courthouse security. they face serious security challenges. serious violence often occurs at these facilities but many courthouses across the nation still lack basic security protections such as metal detectors. h.r. 6185 responds to this critical problem by giving sheriffs as well as state and local courthouses access to training, equipment and other resources to help them improve security. h.r. 6185 will make use of icksisting resources. this -- existing resources. this requires the general services administration to make available to state and local courts at no cost except for shipping, handling and maintenance surplus security equipment that is used to detect weapons such as metal deteaktors, wands and baggage screening devices. to qualify to receive such equipment, the state or local

courthouse must have less security equipment necessary to meet the security needs of that courthouse. because these devices are surplus and not otherwise being utilized by any federal agency, it allows this equipment to be put into service at the state and local level. another important aspect of the bill is has grants awarded by the state justice institute to include improvement of the safety and security of state and local courts. as a result, h.r. 6185 strengthens the entity's current authority to support education, training and technical assistance projects to improve the administration of justice in the state courts. this measure addresses a meaningful and constructive way the serious security challenges that state and local courthouses face. not surprisingly, h.r. 6185 enjoys a broad range of support, including the national sheriff's association, the national association for court management, the conference of chief justices, the conference of state court administrators,

the american judges association, the national court reporters association and the center for judicial and executive security. i commend my colleague, the gentlelady from florida, mrs. adams, for her work in developing the bill and urge my colleagues to support the legislation. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from texas. mr. smith: mr. speaker, i'll reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from virginia. mr. scott: i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from texas. mr. smith: mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time as well. the speaker pro tempore: all time having been expired, the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 6185 as amended. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table.

for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? mr. smith: mr. speaker, i move that the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 1775, the stolen valor active 2011, as amended. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: union calendar number 468, h.r. 1775, a bill to amend title 18, united states code, to establish a criminal offense relating to fraudulent claims about military service. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from texas, mr. smith, and the gentleman from virginia, mr. scott, will each control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas. mr. smith: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on h.r. 1775 as amended, currently under

consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. smith: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. smith: mr. speaker, h.r. 1775, the stole be value -- stolen valor act of 2011, was introduced by the gentleman from nevada, mr. heck, and i want to thank him for his dedication to protect the honor bestowed on our nation's military heroes. mr. speaker, i'm going to yield as much time as he may consume to that gentleman from nevada, the sponsor of this legislation. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. heck: i thank the gentleman for yielding. thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise today to urge my colleagues to join with me in protecting the honor and valor of our military heroes by passing h.r. 1775, the stolen valor act of 2011. on june 28, 2012, the u.s. supreme court struck down the stolen valor act of 2005, concluding that the broad nature of the law infringed upon the guaranteed protection of free speech provided by the

first amendment of our constitution. the court determined that the act, quote, sought to control and suppress all false statements on this one subject, without regard as to whether the lie was made for the purpose of material gain. end quote. however, in concurring with the decision of the plurality, a justice stated that a, quote, more finely tailored statute that shows the false statement could significantly reduce the threat of first amendment harm while permitting the statute to achieve its important objective , that was at least material. mr. speaker, this is exactly what my legislation does. the stolen valor act of 2011 resolves these constitutional issues by clearly defining that the objective of the law is to target and punish those who misrepresent their alleged service with the intent of profiting personally or financially. the finding intent helps ensure that this law will pass

constitutional scrutiny while at the same time achieving its primary objective which is to preserve and protect the honor and integrity of military service and awards. in 2006 every member of both the house and senate clearly understood the need for this legislation and demonstrated that by unanimously passing the prior stolen valor act in each chamber. mr. speaker, the need to protect the honor, service and sacrifice of our veterans and military personnel is just as strong today as it was in 2006. this house has the opportunity to once again show our service members and veterans that we value the magnitude of their sacrifice while at the same time protecting the constitutional rights that they fought so hard to protect. h.r. 1775 enjoys broad bipartisan support with 107 co-sponsors and is supported by numerous veteran service organizations including the veterans of foreign wars, the

association of the u.s. navy, the fleet reservist association, the national association for uniform services, the national guard association of the united states, the association of the united states army, the military officers association of america, the military order of the purple heart and am vets. i'd like to thank chairman smith and ranking member conyers for helping to move this important legislation that was reported unanimously out of the judiciary committee. i would also like to thank my colleague from arkansas, mr. griffin, for sponsoring the substitute amendment during committee consideration. mr. speaker, it is only fitting that we pass this bill on the 11th anniversary of the attacks of 9/11. in recognition of the brave service men and women who have fought and died in the war to bring the perpetrators of these attacks to justice. i urge my colleagues to support h.r. 1775 and yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentleman yields back. the gentleman from virginia. mr. scott: thank you, mooks -- thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. scott: mr. speaker, i rise in support of h.r. 1775, the stolen valor act. it has long been a tradition in the united states to recognize those in our armed services who stand out among their piers for -- peers for service to our nation by awarding them special military metals and decorations -- medals and decorations. recipients have often been wounded in the line of dutyy or have made the ultimate sacrifice. military medals and decorations constitute a tribute as well as tangible manifestation of our nation's deep and abiding recognition and appreciation to our service members. there are however those who falsely claim to be recipients of these special honors. such malicious actions denigrate the integrity of those honors that those who -- to those who have legitimately received them. in response a law was enacted with laudable purpose of ensuring the integrity of

military honors by punishing those who make such false representations. unfortunately in the scope of the -- unfortunately the scope of the law was recently found by the supreme court to be unconstitutional. because the first amendment even protects despicable speech. justice kennedy however writing for the court set out certain guidelines that congress could follow in limiting the statute's constitutional flaw. he wrote, where false claims are made to affect a fraud or secure moneys or other valuable considerations, it is well established that the government may restrict speech without confronting the first amendment. and so as reported by the judiciary committee, this bill adheres to the suggestion -- this suggested construct by amending the current law, in order to obtain money, property or other tangible benefits.

this will actually cover most of the incidences of false claims. as a result this measure will in full compliance with the constitution ensure that no one will financially benefit or receive other tangible rewards from falsely representing that they have been awarded these honors and this will cover all of the despicable cases of false claims that the constitution will allow. under h.r. 1775, it will protect the honor and integrity of our nation's military medals and decorations as well as respect the rights accorded to americans under the first amendment. accordingly, mr. speaker, i urge my colleagues to support the legislation and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from texas. mr. smith: mr. speaker, i'll yield as much time as he might consume to the gentleman from arkansas, mr. griffin, who is an active member of the judiciary committee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. griffin: thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, mr. speaker.

i rise today in support of h.r. 1775, the stolen valor act of 2011. and urge its passage. i would like to thank congressman joe heck for his leadership on this issue as well as the judiciary committee chairman smith. also ranking member conyers. for their bipartisan cooperation passing this bill out of committee. as a proud co-sponsor of the stolen valor act, i offered a substitute amendment during committee consideration in response to the recent supreme court decision in u.s. v. alvarez. the court said that however despicable a false claim about receiving a military award is protected by the first amendment. the substitute amendment which was adopted unanimously by the judiciary committee on august 1, 2012, incorporates the supreme court's opinion and the recommendations in alvarez. the bill we consider today ensures that the medal of honor, purple heart and other military awards will be

protected from fraud and that those who make false claims of military service or awards will face criminal penalties. i believe that protecting the integrity and valor of american service members who have distinguished themselves in defense of this nation is critically important. we must ensure that the medal of honor and other military awards are protected from fraud and the stolen valor act helps in that effort. thank you and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from virginia. mr. scott: mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas. mr. smith: mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time as well. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 1775 as amended. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative --

being in the affirmative -- mr. scott: mr. speaker, i ask for the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays are requested. all those in favor of taking this vote by the yeas and nays will rise and remain standing until counted. a sufficient number having arisen, the yeas and nays are to ordered. -- are ordered. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, proceedings on this question will be postponed. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? mr. smith: mr. speaker, i move that the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 6215, to amend the trademark act of 1946 to correct an error in the provisions relating to remedies for delusion as amended. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 6215, a bill to amend the trademark act of 1946 to correct an error in the provisions relating to remedies for dial using.

d the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from texas, mr. smith, and the gentleman from north carolina, mr. wats, each will control to -- mr. watts, each will control 20 minutes. mr. smith: i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on h.r. 6215 as amended. mr. speaker, the purpose of the federal trademark dilution act of 1995 is to protect famous trademarks from uses that blur the distinction -- distintsiveness of the trademark or tarnish or disparage it. dilution does not rely upon the standard test of infringement. that is likelihood of confusion, deception or mistake. rather it applies when the unauthorized use of a famous trademark reduces the public's perception that the trademark signifies something unique, singular or particular.

dilution can result in the loss of the trademark's distinctiveness and possibly the owner's rights in it. congress enacted amendments to the original dilution statute in 2006. last year two law professors discovered a technical problem with one of the 2006 changes. during senate consideration of the house bill, the section that provides a federal registration defense to a dilution action was reorganized. this produced an unexpected and unintended change to the law. as originally drafted in the house, the provision was designed to encourage federal registration of trademarks. this is a worthy policy goal that prevents state laws from inter-- interfering with federally protected trademarks and ensures that registered trademarks are protected nationwide. the house version promoted this goal and barred a state action for dilution against the federally registered trademark. however, the senate reform -- reformatted the house text in such a way as to create a bar

against state action for dilution as well as a state or federal action based on a claim of actual or likely damage or harm to the distinctiveness or reputation of a trademark. this means that federal registration defense is available to both state and federal dilution claims. congress did not intend such an outcome. if all dilution claims, including federal claims, are bad by registration, it becomes difficult to cancel a diluting trademark that is registered. this encourages illegitimate trademark holders to register diluting trademarks which focus -- forces legitimate trademark holders to expend greater resources to monitor registrations as well as other trademarks being used in commerce. that is why i introduced h.r. 6215, to amend the federal trademark dilution act. this bill simply reformats the affected provision to clarify that federal registration only constitutes a complete bar to a

state claim based on dilution or actual or likely damage or harm to the distinctiveness or reputation of a trademark. the change applies prospectively. this bill ensures that the trademark community is protected from those who seek to use this loophole as a way to disparage legitimate trademarks and cost their owners time and money. the only change the bill reported is a technical correction to a boiler plate reference regarding the date of enactment of the trademark act of 1946. the reported version inaccurately identifies the date of enactment as july 6, 1946, the correct date is july 5, 1946. i urge my colleagues to support h.r. 6215 and i'll reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from north carolina. mr. watt: i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. watt: mr. speaker, i rise in support of h.r. 6215 which is necessary to correct a

technical error in the trade mation delusion revision act of 2006 -- trademark delusion revision act of 2006 which had a trademark to be a bar from the trademark delusion claims. the concept of dilution -- massachusetts was the first state to erect a dilution statute in 1937. the purpose is to protect the value and unique of the plaintiff's trademark without requiring evidence about the likelihood of confusion. over 50 years after the passage of the massachusetts statute, the 1996 federal trademark dilution act provided nationwide injunctive relief, quote, begins a use that causes dilution of the distinctive quality of the famous

trademark, closed quote. in 2003, however, the supreme court in mosley vs. victoria secret catalog, inc. considered whether proof of injury to the economic value of a famous mark, that is actual dilution, is required to obtain relief under trademark dilution act. the court decided that evidence of actual dilution was required, not simply a showing of likely dilution. the trademark dilution revision act of 2006 amended the law in attempt to reverse the victoria's secret decision and expand the ban under the federal statute. during consideration of the trademark dilution revision act, however, the provision allowing a federal registration defense to dilution claims

border under state law was reorganized which is to result in an unintended substantive change in the provision. as a result, the federal registration defense is available not only against state dilution claims but also against federal dilution claims. the legislative history makes clear that congress did not intend to allow a federal trademark registration to buy a federal dilution claim. h.r. 6215 corrects this error and has broad support in splectual property community and bipartisan support on the judiciary committee. i urge my colleagues to support the legislation, which ensures that the will of the congress as originally intended does not undermine by an inadvertent drafting error, and i reserve

the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from texas. mr. smith: mr. speaker, i'll yield back the balance of my time. mr. watt: and i'll yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: all time yielded back. the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 6215 as amended. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed, and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? mr. smith: mr. speaker, i move to suspend the rules and pass s. 3245. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 6189, a bill to

eliminate understand necessary reporting requirements for under funded programs under the office of justice programs. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from texas, mr. smith, and the gentleman from michigan, mr. conyers, each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas. mr. smith: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on h.r. 6189, as amended, currently under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. smith: and, mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. smith: mr. speaker, i join the ranking member, congressman conyers, in co-sponsoring this commonsense, bipartisan bill reporting efficiency improvement act, and i thank him for introducing this legislation. the government performance and results modernization act of 2010 requires federal agencies to identify reports that may be outdated or duplicative. then, the executive branch must

consult with congress to determine if these reports can be eliminated. here the administration suggests that congress repeal the two reports eliminated by this bill. both of these reports are prepared by the office of justice programs and the department of justice but the underlying grant programs have not been funded by congress for many years. adopting this commonsense bill is a simple step that congress can take to help federal agencies work more efficiently. i hope this bill sets a precedent for many similar bills in the future. i again thank mr. conyers for his initiative on this issue. i urge my colleagues to support this bill, and i'll reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. mr. conyers. mr. conyers: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. conyers, h.r. 6189, reporting efficiency improvement act, eliminates two reporting requirements that the department of justice deems no

longer needed or useful to the congress. under the government performance and results modernization act, the department of justice conducts an annual review of statutory reporting requirements that are outdated, duplicative or otherwise no longer useful. in this review, the department identified two reports that are the subject of the bill before us now. the first of the two stem from the d.n.a. analysis backlog elimination act and under which the attorney general is required to report to congress on various grants made to states to perform d.n.a. analysis. because congress has not appropriated any funding for these specific grants since

fiscal year 2003, this statutory reporting requirement has been obsolete for almost a decade. the second report is based on the police corps act, originally a part of the violent crime control act of 1994. the director of the office of the police corps is required to make an annual report to congress on the program's status. however, congress has nt appropriated any -- hasn't appropriated any funds for the office since fiscal year 2005. so h.r. 6189, there's no need to have these federal requirements on the books if there's no activity for the department of justice or the office of justice programs to report. and none planned at any time in

the near future. it's important to note that this legislation doesn't make changes to the relevant programs. it merely eliminates discreet reporting requirements that are no longer useful. i want to thank lamar smith, the chairman of the judiciary committee, for his support and eagerness in moving this legislation through the committee. and so i urge my colleagues the measure. i reserve the balance of my time and having no other requests for additional speakers on this, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. mr. smith: mr. chairman, i first -- mr. speaker, i first want to thank the ranking member, the gentleman from michigan, mr. conyers, for his nice comments and i'll yield back the balance of my time as well. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the question is will the house

suspend the rules and pass h.r. 6189, as amended. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed, and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? mr. smith: mr. speaker, i move that the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 6080, to make improvements in the enactment of title 41, united states code, into a positive law title and to improve the code. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: house calendar

number 159, h.r. 6080, to make improvements in the enactment of title 41, united states code, into a positive law title and to improve the code. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from texas, mr. smith, and the gentlewoman from california, ms. lofgren, each will coal 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas. mr. smith: i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on h.r. 6080, currently under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. smith: and, mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. smith: mr. speaker, the rules of the house entrust the judiciary committee with the responsibilities of revision and codification of the statutes of the united states. this power does not give our committee substantive legislative jurisdiction over all areas of law. it merely confers the authority to organization duly enacted laws into an efficient codification system. the nonpartisan office of law revision council is responsibly

for codifying public laws into titles and sections of the united states code. from time to time that office provides the judiciary committee with advice as to how to enact a more user-friendly and cohesive statutory system. this brings -- democratic and republican staff developed h.r. 6080. the bill makes technical improvements to title 41, united states code, which has laws containing federal contracts. it makes no changes to substantive law. i urge my colleagues to support this bill and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: you yield back? the gentlelady from california. ms. lofgren: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. ms. lofgren: mr. speaker, i'm pleased to join my colleague, judiciary committee committee lamar smith, in bringing this floor to the floor. it's a commonsense bill. it makes technical revisions to

bipartisan legislation enacted during the 111th congress that created the new title 41 of the u.s.c. which contains the public contracts. it was issued as part of the ongoing responsibility to draft and submit to the committee on the judiciary one title at a time. a complete compilation, revision of the general and permanent laws of the united states. it makes conforming amendments to the laws contained in 41. corrects reference. in addition the bill references outdated or repealed laws, makes clarifying revisions to section and titles 41 that do not provide meaningful particular words for the purpose of clarity and corrects to cross-references to public laws that may have been erroneously concluded. the bill is not intended to make any substantive changes to the law. as is typical with the codification process. a number of nonsubstantive revisions are made, including

the revisions of sections into a more coherent overall instructive, but these changes, as i said, is not intended to have any substantive effect. i urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and i'd like to take this opportunity to thank the office of the law revision council for its good work. this makes a practice of law more coherent in the united states. we have no speakers and so i'd yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 6080. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 having responded in the affirmative, the rules are sprebbeded, the bill is passed, and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? mr. smith: mr. speaker, i move that the house suspend the

rules and pass s. 3 45, a bill to extends by three years the authorization of the eb-5 regional center program, the e-verify program and the special immigrant non-minister religious worker program and the comrade -- conrad state 30 j-1 visa waiver program. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: senate 3245, an act to extend by three years the authorization of the eb-5 regional center program, the e-verify program, the special immigrant non-minister religious worker program and the conrad state 30 j-1 visa waiver program. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from texas, mr. smith, and the gentlewoman from california, ms. lofgren, each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas. mr. smith: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on s. 3245 currently under consideration. the speaker pro tempore:

without objection. mr. smith: and, mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: and the gentleman is recognized. mr. smith: mr. speaker, first of all i'd like to thank the senate judiciary committee chairman and ranking member for introducing this ledge slace and for working with me -- legislation and for working with me to help ensure that four key immigration-related programs do not expire at the end of this month. this congress must ensure there is a national business climate that fosters the ability of private enterprise to create jobs for americans and legal workers. s. 3245 which extends for three years the e-verify, eb-5 regional center pilot and the non-minister religious programs helps achieve this goal in several ways. first, the e-verify program allows employers to electronically verify that newly hired employees are authorized to work in the united states. the program is free, quick and easy to use. nearly 400,000 american

employers use e-verify in over 1,000 new businesses sign up for it every week. the american public overwhelmingly supports e-verify. last year a poll found that 82% of likely vote, quote, think businesses should be required to use the federal government's e-verify system to determine if a potential employee is in the country legally, end quote. e-verify has also received bipartisan congressional support in the past. in 2008 the house passed a five-year extension of the e-verify by a vote of 407-2. and in 2009 the senate passed a permanent e-verify extension by voice vote. ensuring that businesses have access to e-verify will help preserve jobs for the 23 million americans who are currently unemployed or looking for full-time work.

under this program, 10,000 immigrants can receive permanent residence each year if they engage in a new commercial enterprise, invest between $500,000 and $1 million in the business and see that it creates 10 full-time jobs for american workers. the regional center pilot project, which is almost two decades old, has reinvigorated the investor visa program. investment through the center is especially attract to have potential investors because they are relieved of the responsibility of running a new business. they can also count indirect job creation toward the job creation requirement. most investor visa petitions now involve regional centerless. it appears that investors may feel more confident about a regional center that is operated through a state or city government. in these hard economic times, many state and local governments have turned to regional centers as a method of generating economic growth.

the association to invest in the united states of america has estimated the regional center program has created or saved over 65,000 jobs in the u.s. and has led to the investment of over $3 billion in the u.s. economy. s. 3245 also extends for three years a program that has successfully brought needed doctors to medically underserved areas in the u.s. this program was designed by senator kent conrad. it allows foreign doctors who have been in the u.s. on exchange programs to stay at the conclusion of their residencies if they agree to practice medicine for at least three years in health professional-shortage areas. this is a valuable provision and i support its re-authorization. finally s. 3245 extends the special immigrant non-minister religious worker program. in this program, 5,000 immigrant visas can be issued to non-minister individuals who have been members of the

denomination and have worked in the capacity for which they are applying for at least the two years immediately following the visa application. historically the program has been plagued by fraud but the bush administration took steps to help prevent much of the fraud and now many churches and religious organizations in the united states rely on these immigrant non-ministers. i look forward to making statutory changes aimed at even more fraud prevention and support the program's extension. again i'd like to thank senator leahy and grassley for their leadership on this bill. all four of these programs are important and i urge my colleagues to support s. 3245 and i'll reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentlelady from california. ms. lofgren: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. ms. lofgren: mr. speaker, i do rise in strong support of this bill. specifically this bill extends until september 30, 2015, these

four longstanding immigration programs that are set to expire otherwise at the end of this month. the valuable programs, and they serve different purposes, the one, the special immigrant non-minister religious worker program allows religious workers to enter the united states to do important work. there's 5,000 religious workers eligible for these visas each year and they're called to a vocation or in a traditional religious occupation with a bona fide nonprofit religious organization. they're missionaries, counselors, instruct or -- instructors, care providers and they really help our country. the second program, the conrad j waiver, helps underserved communities attract highly skilled physicians. this program literally provides a lifeline for communities that are -- that desperately need doctors who receive their medical training in the united states and it's absolutely necessary that this program continue to exist so that states can attract medical talent and can keep the doors

of smalltown clinics open. the third program, the eb-5 immigrant investor pilot program, allocates 3,000 out of the eb-5 category's 10,000 visas each year for eb-5 investers who invest in these designated regional centers. this pilot program is important to our nation's economy as it represents actually billions of dollars in immigrant investment and creates more than 20,000 new direct and indirect jobs each year. the program that will be extended under the bill is e-verify, the basic pilot program first authorized in 1996. now, chairman smith and i disagree on how effective this bill is. i don't believe it's ready for mandatory nationwide use because of errors in the system and more broadly major dysfunctions in our immigration system. but that doesn't mean i disagree that this program should be extended. i do. this program is voluntary and

by extending the e-verify program as it currently exists, it will provide congress additional time to work toward improving the program and fixing our nation's immigration laws so that they will work for american families, businesses and the economy as a whole. i should know that this bill received unanimous support in the senate. likewise i hope that all of my colleagues in this chamber will support this bipartisan legislation so that it can be quickly sent to the president's desk for his signature and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves. the gentleman from texas. mr. smith: mr. speaker, i'll reserve the balance of my time as well. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. ms. lofgren: mr. speaker, we do have two members who would like to address this briefly. i would yield to mr. larsen for two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. larson: mr. chair, i rise today in support of 3245, which would in part re-altogether rise rise the eb-5 visa program for three years.

this eb-5 program will create good, american jobs. last year i worked with senator leahy to write the creating american jobs for foreign capital act. that legislation would have re-authorized eb-5 permanently. while the bill before us today extends the program for only three years, it is still an important job creator that we must pass. the program allows qualified foreign investors who invest in the u.s. and create or save at least 10 full-time american jobs to seek u.s. visas. this program brings overseas capital to the u.s. to create jobs for people in my district and across america. there are two projects in washington being financed through the eb-5 program, which is a college building that if this bill is not passed our area will lose this building and the opportunities associated with it. the second investment is one for a building housing a regional farmer's market, a project that has been in the works and is almost done. this project will help local farmers regionally and create jobs and if this bill is not

passed, again this project which is set to be finished soon cannot be completed and all finance and investments lost. in another part of my district the local eb-5 center has leveraged more than $34 million from immigrant investers to create more than 800 good local jobs. the eb-5 program is a real three-fer. it's a win for american workers who benefit from jobs. it's a win for the taxpayer because it doesn't add one penny to the national deficit and it helps the u.s. compete on a global scale. the u.s. eb-5 visa program is one that more than 20 similar programs run by other important growing economies like hong kong, new zealand, australia and singapore. our economy cannot afford to do without these investments or these jobs. if we don't keep this road open for foreign investment into the u.s. open, that investment will choose another country's road. congress must extend the eb-5 program so we can continue creating new jobs at a time when we need them most. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the

balance of his time. ms. lofgren: mr. chairman, i would yield a minute and a half to the gentleman from vermont, mr. welch. mr. welch: i thank the gentlelady. i thank the gentleman from texas. i thank the gentlewoman from california. this is terrific. the eb-5 program works. we're doing it together. we're working with the senate, we're getting something done. and let me tell you, the place we're getting something done includes the sugar bush valley, the man river valley in vermont and the northeast kingdom. we've had two ski areas that have been able to take advantage of the eb-5 program, get investor money, build the infrastructure did -- that is so essential to the tourist economy we have in vermont. so this is a program that works and it's delightful to me to be able to participate in reinstating this program so that it can continue to help create jobs, promote economic development in my state of vermont. i thank the gentleman from texas and the gentlewoman from

california for your leadership on this and the bipartisan team of senator leahy and senator grassley in the united states senate. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from texas. mr. smith: mr. speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. ms. lofgren: i have no additional speakers and i would be happy to yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. mr. smith: mr. speaker, before i yield back the balance of my time, i want to thank the gentlewoman from california, ms. lofgren, for her continued interest in and leadership in the subject of immigration and i especially appreciate her support of this bill today. i'll yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass senate bill 3245. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative -- mr. smith: mr. speaker, on that i ask for the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays are requested. all those in favor of taking this vote by the yeas and nays will rise and remain standing until counted.

a sufficient number having arisen, the yeas and nays are ordered. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, further proceedings on this question will be postponed. for what purpose does the gentleman from florida seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i move to suspend the rules and pass h.r. 4057 as amended. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: union calendar number 464, h.r. 4057, a bill to amend title 38, united states code, to direct the secretary of veterans affairs to develop a comprehensive policy to improve outreach and transparency to veterans and

members of the armed forces through the provision of information on institutions of higher learning and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from florida, mr. bilirakis, and the gentleman from california, mr. filner, will each control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from florida. mr. bilirakis: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material they may have on h.r. 5057 as amended -- 4057 as amended. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. bilirakis: mr. speaker, i yield myself as much time as i my consume. thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, h.r. 4057 as amended is another bipartisan product of the committee on veterans affairs' war to improve the effectiveness of several different benefits and health programs for veterans. i want to express my appreciation to my good friend, chairman miller, and my other good friend, ranking member bob filner, along with each of the

subcommittee chairs, marlin stutzman, and ann marie buerkle, as well as ranking members bruce braley and mike michaud, for bringing of course these provisions to the full committee and to the floor today. the bill has five major sections, mr. speaker. section one reflects -- reflects a slightly modified version of the original text of my bill which i introduced in february. this legislation would improve the ability of g.i. bill users to choose the school that best meets their educational needs. as we commemorate september 11 today, it is appropriate that this congress help this generation of post-9/11 veterans make informed choices by using their educational benefits. specifically, this bill would require the v.a. to create a comprehensive policy that would meet this goal by informing

veterans about their eligibility for educational counseling, creating a centralized database on schools, requiring state approving agencies to be part of crediting agencies, have performance related points on navigator and other appropriate websites and having off-the-shelf software that would assist students in choosing a school and software that would evaluate the readiness to attend postsecondary education. i want to thank the veterans service organizations and higher education associations for the support of this section and providing great feedback on ways to improve this bill. section 2 contains provisions originally introduced by congressman sires and congressman tim walz to require states to take military training into account in

awarding licenses to work as medical technicians and other trades. i thank mr. sires, another good friend of mine, and mr. walz for their work on these provisions that will speed up service members' transition so civilian life. section 3 contains a provision introduced by david mckinley which would require per diem recipients to certify compliance with the life safety code or the international fire code and other relevant fire safety and building codes. it would also require v.a. to include an accounting an evaluation of the safety and accessibility of facilities used to provide programs for homeless veterans and the annual report on assistance to homeless veterans. i am grateful for mr. mckinley's advocacy on behalf of our homeless veterans and i thank him for his hard work to ensure that they are cared for

in a safe and secure environment. section 4, which incorporates language originally introduced by representative akin, would direct the v.a. to establish and maintain an open byrne-pitt -- veterans of iraq and afghanistan who may have been exposed to toxic chemicals and fumes caused by open burn pits occurring deployment. it would require v.a. to develop a public campaign to inform eligible veterans of the registry and periodically notify them of significant developments and the study and treatments of those associated with burn pit exposure. it would also direct the v.a. to contract with an independent scientific organization to develop a report on the effectiveness of actions taken to collect and maintain information on the health affects of burn pit exposure

and submit the completed report to congress. many of our service members and veterans have returned from iraq and afghanistan with grave concerns about the possible long-term health effects of burn pit exposure. with this provision, i hope we will move one step closer to providing them answers which may lead to getting them more effective health care. finally, section 5, which incorporates language offered by mr. stearns, a good friend of mine from the state of florida, would limit the total amount of bonuses paid to senior v.a. employees to $1 million for fiscal years 2013 to 2017. on average over the last several years, v.a. paid nearly $4 million a year to senior executives who are already paid very well. in a tight fiscal climate when so many improvements are needed for veterans, we must

prioritize every dollar. extravagant executive bonuses ought to be the least of our priorities and i'm pleased this section would recognize that reality. mr. speaker, i would also note that the cost of these sections are fully paid for. i encourage all members to support this bill and reserve the balance of my time. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from texas. >> i thank the chairman. i ask for as much time as i may consume. mr. filner: i thank mr. bilirakis protecting service members. i think mr. bilirakis gave a comprehensive overview of the bill. let me make a couple points here. the post-9/11 g.i. bill which a democratic congress passed a couple years ago was really a

milestone for our current crop of veterans. you know, almost 800,000 veterans of iraq and afghanistan have now made use of the benefits that this bill provides. so we ought to be as a congress very proud of that kind of legislation. and with so many thousands of veterans using their post-9/11 g.i. bill it's important that they understand their benefits and eligibility and have all the information available to them and that's what h.r. 4057 does which mr. bilirakis outlined quite nicely. so veterans are going to be able to get the kind of information that they need to get the best educational benefits that are suited to them. let me just say one thing about the section 4 of the bill which authorizes the department of v.a. to establish a burn pit registry for eligible veterans. mr. speaker, every time that we send men and women into combat

we have to make sure we understand the risks associated with exposures to toxic substances and take responsibility when we expose our own troops to these effects. we haven't done that in the past. we ought to learn more from history. whether it was atomic testing in world war ii, whether it was agent orange in the vietnam war, whether it was depleted uranium, we've done the same thingver and over again. we either denied or underestimated the risk. it took years, even decades to admit the risk and when we finally did that we still make our veterans undergo lots of bureaucratics hoops to get the benefits that come from exposure to the very substances that we put them -- we put them at risk for. so let's not repeat that pattern, and this is -- this open pit registry will be part of that effort. we want to understand the risk.

we want people to know where they have been exposed. i requested the general accountability office to help us in our efforts to better understand health risks associated with the burn pits in iraq and afghanistan, and we all know that the preliminary reports have shown that the fumes from these pits produced a considerable amount of contaminants that may cause short and long-term harm to our service members. so finally we are having a pro active measure and one -- proactive measure and one which will help veterans in an extremely positive way. i thank mr. bilirakis and his colleagues for the working with our colleagues for the bill and i'd reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from florida. mr. bilirakis: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i'm happy to yield three minutes to a senior member of the veterans committee, my good friend from florida, mr. stearns. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from florida is recognized for two minutes. mr. stearns: i thank my distinguished chairman and colleague. i rise today in support of h.r.

4057, the improving transparency of education opportunities for veterans act of 2012. it's been offered by my colleague from florida, gus bilirakis. my colleagues, this bill will provide veterans and service members the resources they need to make informed decisions when choosing the right institution or school for the career they wish to pursue. the other provisions include -- included would help veterans with state certification credentials for skilled acquired while on active duty. it ensures homeless veterans have access to shelters in complains with the state and local codes and would require the secretary to establish and maintain a burn pit registry program for individuals who may have been exposed to toxic chemicals. during the committee markup, i offered an amendment that would limit the amount the v.a. would pay in performance awarded to senior staff from fiscal year 2013 to 2017. to adequately cover the cost

associated with h.r. 4057 along with the provisions included in the other three bills. my colleagues, in the last three years during the worst economic climate this country has seen since the great depression, almost 800,000 v.a. employees received monetary awards totaling $1.1 billion. this limitation amendment i offered affects only the senior executive services, the s.e.s., as they're called, who are considered to be generals of the federal work force and make between $120,000 and $180,000 a year. the v.a. has an agency that has underperformed, yet, they continue to provide performance bonuses at the expense of taxpayers and the well-being of our veterans. today's v.a.'s backlog stands at 840,000 claims of which more than 55% have been pending for more than 125 days. it is unconscionable that these senior executive employees are

receiving bonuses averaging 40,000 a year on top of their six-figure salaries when the number of backlog claims is closer to the number of the monetary awards given. today on september 11 is the day every american will never forget. i urge all my colleagues to support passage of this bill and by doing so we honor our veterans and service members by supplying them with these needed resources to help rebuild their lives. mr. speaker, today is a day we will never forget. we will always remember the sacrifices of those brave men and women and passage of this bill will remind everybody of our appreciation for them. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from california. mr. filner: thank you, mr. speaker. i would recognize our ranking member of the health subcommittee, the gentleman from maine, a fighter for veterans affairs, representative michaud. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. michaud: thank you, mr.

speaker. i want to thank the gentleman for his strong support for veterans over the years and look forward to continuing to work with him throughout the rest of this congress. mr. speaker, i rise today as a co-sponsor and a strong supporter of this bill. each section of it makes important changes that will improve the care and services we provide our veterans. i'm especially proud that it creates a comprehensive educational outreach policy, recognizes that military service meets the standards of many civilian job certification and that it establishes an open burn pit registry. all three of these provisions are the result of the hard work of veterans and their advocates. i had many meetings with veterans who not only identified these issues but they also provided solutions

for the issues as well. in my time as serving on the house veterans' affairs committee, i always appreciated that it's one of the places in congress where bipartisan efforts working and things do get done. i am pleased that this is the tradition in this particular bill as well. i want to thank all of my colleagues on the veterans' affairs committee, chairman miller of the full committee and chairman buerkle of the health care subcommittee and tim walz, who's also been a true advocate for veterans' issues and thank him for his service as well for this great nation of ours and i would encourage my colleagues to support h.r. 4057 and i yield back the remainder of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from california reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from florida. mr. bilirakis: i will yield to the chairwoman of the subcommittee on health, ms. buerkle from new york.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from new york is recognized. ms. buerkle: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today in support of h.r. 4057, as amended, the improving transparency of education opportunities for veterans act of 2012. as we all know, 11 years ago this morning on september 11, 2001, our country was forever changed when terrorist attacks on american soil resulted in the deaths of over 3,000 innocent souls. and since that time we've been tested like never before. and thanks to the brave service and sacrifices of our nation's armed forces have emerged as a nation stronger, better and more resolved to advancing the cause of freedom around the world. we also have emerged a more grateful nation, ever reminded of the simple truth that the security and freedoms we enjoy were bought and paid for by the blood, sweat and tears of those in uniform. caring for and honoring these

heroes is one of our nation's most sacred obligations and the primary purpose of this bill before us today. h.r. 4057, as amended, includes two provisions originating from the subcommittee on health of which i am honored to chair. section 3 of the bill would require per diem payment recipients under the department of v.a. homeless grant and per diem program to provide v.a. with a certification of compliance with a life safety code or the international fire code and other relevant fire safety building codes in their jurisdiction. this provision would require the v.a. to include an accounting and evaluation of the safety and accessibility of facilities used to provide programs for homeless vets in the annual report on assistance to homeless veterans. current law requires the v.a. to ensure that those receiving grants under the per diem program meet safety codes.

however v.a. lacks the rules to make certain that their per diem grants are subject to the same rules. we must make sure that the services they need in a safe and secure environment this would allow us to do so in a more comprehensive, effective, and efficient manner this was introduced by my good friend, david mckinley, and i thank him for his advocacy on behalf of the homeless veterans trying to rebuild their life. it would require an open pit registry to be mane taped this provision would also require the v.a. to develop a public information campaign to inform eligible veterans of the registry and periodically

notify them of significant developments in the study and treatment of the conditions that may be associated with burn pit exposure. it would direct the v.a. to contract with an independent scientific organization to develop a report on the actions take ton collect and maintain information on the health effects of burn pit exposure and submit the completed report to congress. i have heard from countless veterans who returned home from war consumed with concern about the air they breathed in battle which was often filled with the smoke from the burning of solid waste. with this provision we take the first steps toward recognizing and respecting thee concerns of our veterans. importantly, it will also allow taos fwather data necessary to discovering new and better ways to -- ways to care for our veterans today and in future generations. in closing, i would like to offer my sincere gratitude and appreciation to all the members who sponsored the provisions

included in this legislation. i also would like to thank the ranking member of the house subcommittee formy showed for his support in all the -- mr. michaud for his support in all the legislation. on this diof all days, it is so vor important we support the per sis -- service members and veterans who have fought for the greatest nation in the history of mankind, the united states of america. i yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. the gentleman from california. >> i would like to yield three minutes to the gentleman from minnesota, the sergeant major of the united states congress, mr. walz. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. walz: thank you, mr. speaker. i would like to thank my fellow member. to bilirakis and the entire committee for what has been said by several of my colleagues, it's fitting and appropriate today that we're passing legislation to serve those who have served us.

it also is fitting and appropriate that we conduct ourselveses in a manner fitting of their service this committee is one, as mr. michaud said, and so many others have said, we're proud of the work we do together. i'd like to comment briefly on section two of this, my good friend and friend of veterans from ohio, mr. stivers, has been an absolute outspoken, untiring advocate to make sure we employ these veterans when they come home. last month, president obama signed in another bill of you ares, the veterans skills to job act, making it easier to credential our veterans when they come back. we spent $140 billion training our veterans. when they come back home, they're not victims but we know there are barriers to employment we should not be putting up in front of them. if they drove the truck and served the nation in afghanistan, why should they have to pay to get a c.d.l.

license? and if they saved their colleagues and were a medic, why can't they ride in an ambulance in my district? we need to make sure we're not putting barriers in front of them and that we're not spending precious resources, whether it's giving them unemployment insurance or retraining them through redundant trainings that in many cases in my office, my veteran staffer was the shape commander's pilot, blackhawk pilot in europe. he was the top trainer in the military. he came back -- if he came back out civilian wise, he would have to go through a 48-month course to get through some of these thins. i want to thank mr. stivers for making this possible. the transition. and i want to thank our states who are willing to work with us. there are straight states who inched this proposal. it's the right thing to do for our veterans. it will give our veterans

great, dependable employees and make it possible to do what is best for our veterans and get back to work and do the things they want to do. i want to thank everyone involved for this great bill. i encourage my colleagues to support h.r. 4057. >> the gentleman from california resevens the balance of his time the skelt from florida. >> i'm happy to yield two minutes to mr. stivers. the speaker: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. stivers: i'd like to thank my colleague from mp, mr. walleds, as we tried to enact the hire at home act which has been rolled into this bill. the legislation came from a round table of veterans in my district last fall. as veterans return home today with military training they've received, that training is not recognized by civilian authorities and states and therefore they're forced to go through redundant training to do the job they were doing in the military.

however, if somebody can do a job while serving in a war zone, they can certainly do that same job at home in a safe environment. with so many veterans returning home from iraq and afghanistan, we need to make sure we do everything we can to help get them back to work. it's shameful that the unemployment rate among vet raps, post-9/11 veterans is 12.7%, according to a recent report in the bureau of labor statistics. that's why we introduced the hired a home act. it will remove barriers in front of these soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines and get them civilian certifications they need to get them to work as soon as they get home. it forces states to do this by ensuring that in order to receive certain grants, work force development grants, they have to streamline these certifications. i would like to thank all those who helped make this bill happen today, representative walz, representative bilirakis,

representative miller, representive stetson, i'd like to call on the united states senate to pass this bill as soon as we get it done. i'd like to thank the members of the body for their support and urge all members to support this legislation. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from florida continues to reserve. >> i have no further speakers and yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california yields back. the gentleman from florida. >> how much time do i have left? the speaker pro tempore: six minutes. >> i queeled three minutes to the gentleman -- mr. bilirakis: i yield three minutes to the gentleman from west virginia, mr. mckinley. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. mckinley: thank you for bringing this bill to the floor today. let me take an opportunity to highlight a segment of the bill keeling -- dealing with safe

housing for homeless veterans. i previously addressed this concern in a piece of legislation an it was amended into this bill before us today. currently there are 2,100 mustn't-based homeless veterans service providers across the cupry. many other homeless assistance programs. they have demonstrated impressive success reaching homeless veterans. i visited some shelters in my home district and was struck by how many were not, unfortunately, in compliance with state, local, or federal building and fire codes. subs quensly -- consequencely, we began to investigate how broad based this issue was across america. it was unsetting to -- unsettling to learn about shelter fires where lives have been lost. stories of a homeless shelter fire where ock pans were killed due to the fact that there was not a required sprinkler system at the facility or dozens were injured when a sprinkler system

was not working properly or where doors were closed. that needed to be open. all of these could have been avoided. unfortunately, there is no law mandating a homeless shelter meet building and fire safety codes. only a policy. -- only a policy within the v.a. as a licensed professional engineer, i found this to be an egregious emission in the law for homeless veterans this law would require that anying or thinkization that seeks funding for homeless veterans to have documentation that their building meets or exceeds all building codes. this is common sense legislation that could ensure the well being of veterans across america who have fallen on hard times and are in need the most of assistance. as a nation it should be unacceptable for us to allow homeless veterans to be housed in potentially unsafe

conditions. i appreciate the support of this legislation and this provision from the american legion, the homeless veterans coalition, the international code council and the fire marshals' council and the association. thank you, mr. chairman for including this language in the bill today and for your concern for the safety and the living environment of our veterans. i yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. mr. bilirakis: i continue to reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from florida retains the remaining time. mr. bilirakis: i'm happy to yield two minutes to the chairman of the subcommittee on economic opportunity, the gentleman from indiana, mr. stutzman. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. stutzman: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank the gentleman from florida, mr. bilirakis, for yielding. i rise in strong support of h.r. 4057 as amended. this is a bipartisan bill that at its core will help our youngest group of veterans make more informed choices about how to use their v.a. education benefits.

i think it's appropriate today that as we remember 9/11 and those who died that day and those who have died since defending our nation, that we are discussing this bill on the floor. the post-9/11 g.i. bill is a wonderful benefit that thousands of veterans are using or have used to advance their education and training. h.r. 4057 will further assist these veterans in making decisions on how to best use their g.i. bill benefits through new, innovative online tools and by providing greater transparency on certain data from educational institutions. by helping these veterans make more informed choices, we are not only putting them on a path to successful careers, but we are saving taxpayer dollars that may have been misused at a training program that didn't suit veteran's needs. as chairman of the subcommittee on economic opportunity, i'm proud of the work that mr. bilirakis, mr. braley, and the rest of the members of the

subcommittee have done to improve this bill and thanks to our colleagues on the health subcommittee for theirwork as well. i thank chairman miller and the ranking member for their support of this legislation and i yield back the balance of my time and ask my colleagues to support the bill. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from florida. mr. bilirakis: mr. speaker, once again, i urge all members to support h.r. ho 57 as amended. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker: the gentleman from florida yields back. the question is, will the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 4057 as amended? those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 being in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table.

for what purpose does the gentleman from new york seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i move that the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 3857 as reported by the committee on homeland security. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: union calendar number 351, h.r. 3857, a bill to amend the implementing recommendations of the 9/11 commission of 2007 to require the secretary of homeland security to include as an eligible use the sustainment of

specialized operational teams used by local law enforcement under the transit security grant program and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: the chair understands that the gentleman called up the bill as amended. pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from new york, mr. turner, and the gentleman from mississippi, mr. thompson, will each control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from new york. mr. turner: i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include any extraneous material on the bill under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. turner: i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. turner: i urge passage of h.r. 3857, the public transit security and local law enforcement support act, which helps local law enforcement

meet national security demands in a troubled economy. today we solemnly remember the tragedy which took place 11 years ago at the pentagon, in shanksville, pennsylvania, and new york city. i am personally reminded when i travel from my home to new york -- from new york to d.c. i look toward the southern tip of manhattan where the twin towers once stood. as we also remember the brave new york firefighters and police officers who ran into the inferno of the world trade center with no regard for their own safety, we should think of the spirit that lives on in every first responder. they are truly our last line of defense in an increasingly dangerous world and we should make sure they are provided with access to all the resources they need to keep us safe. a large metropolitan area's transit system is the target.

in new york city, they carry over eight million people daily throughout the five boroughs. the transportation grant program provides funds to public transit agencies in high-risk areas for various security projects including the hiring of fun hello time personnel, specialized anti-terrorist teams, k-9 units and public awareness campaigns. it is authorized by the implementing recommendations of the 9/11 commission act of 2007 anand administered by the federal emergency management agency in consultation with the transportation security administration. grant funds are used to create new specialized anti-terror teams, but until recently could not be used to sustain these teams unless the department of homeland security provided a

waiver. this forced law enforcement to face the uncertainty of the waiver process or risk losing vital security assets. fortunately the secretary provided some relief last year so that a waiver was not required but without this bill there's nothing to stop the department of homeland security from reinstating another bureaucratic waiver or a process. h.r. 2857 streamlines the grant program to make it easier for the specialized security teams to receive funding. it authorizes the department of homeland security to provide transit security grant programs to sustained teams and also eliminate the bureaucratic steps of requiring eligible transit agencies to apply for a waiver. this will help avoid countless hours of requested preparation and review. i urge my colleagues to support this bill because there's nothing more important than

protecting our citizens. we must make it a priority to make sure they have the resources they need and as soon as they need it. thank you, and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from mississippi. mr. thompson: mr. speaker, i rise in support of h.r. 2857, the public transit security and local law enforcement support act and i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. thompson: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, as the president stated in his weekly address, the anniversary of 9/11 is a time to honor and commemorate first responders, the victims of the attacks and members of the armed forces serving at home and abroad. it's unfortunate that the republican majority has decided to discontinue the house's

tradition of doing just that by considering a resolution honoring the fallen and commending our nation's bravest on this day. for years majority leaders of both parties have introduced and scheduled consideration of a 9/11 resolution. surely if the house has the time to consider the 32 bills scheduled for consideration on the suspension calendar this week, it has the time to commemorate our nation's first responders, the victims of 9/11 and our troops by considering a resolution doing just that. even if some politicians would prefer not to mention it, our nation is still at war with afghanistan. our troops are still in harm's way a half a world away fighting a war that was the dict result of the terrorist attacks of 9/11. accordingly, i would urge the republican leadership of the house to reconsider their

decision to forgo consideration of a 9/11 resolution this day. as the legislation under consideration today, i support this bill that thanks to an amendment offered by representative jackson lee during committee consideration authorizes $400 million for the transit security grant program. the transit security grant program provides funds to state and local jurisdictions that need help keeping their transportation system secure. as stated, local budgets continue to face the strain of recovering from the economic collapse that occurred during the previous administration. we have a responsibility to ensure that they have the funding needed to build and sustain the capacity to protect against a terrorist attack. as amended, h.r. 3857 does just that. with that, mr. speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from new york. mr. turner: i reserve my time.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. mr. thompson: mr. speaker, i recognize for as much time as she may consume, the gentlelady from houston, texas, ms. jackson lee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from texas is recognized. ms. jackson lee: let me thank mr. turner and the ranking member, mr. thompson, for their courtesies of yielding to me and allowing me to take this moment on the floor, 9/11, to again acknowledge the members of congress who this morning joined each other, if you will, two houses that came together on the east steps to be able to acknowledge those who were lost. and i'd like to say those who still live in the backdrop of the tragedy for many are still pained by the loss of their family members, as we know in

new york, the reading of the names and, of course, the laying of the reef that occurred today at the pentagon. we cannot get those lives back and what we recognize is that those lives represented places around the world, but it also represented moms and dads and children today have grown up without those loved ones because of the horrific and heinous tragedy. and some might say america's naivity. but i'm glad to live in a country that believes in her freedom. i'm glad to live in a country which we claim democracy and understand it and understand the freedom of speech and freedom of access, freedom of association. i would not want to live anywhere else. but we were pained on that day because they attempted to take our naivity away from else, our innocence. i'm glad we came together, both in terms of allowing people now still to travel from the east to the west, from the north to

the south, to have summer vacations to lay out in the open sun. this is our nation and i'm grateful for having the privilege to serve on the homeland security committee. i hold this flag just to indicate that this is a great nation. i'd like to thank our early persons who led this committee. certainly mr. critz cox, mr. jim turner, the homeland security select committee and members who were on that committee, and i want to thank mr. thompson who has been a great leader on these issues. he's been diligent, he's been patriotic, he's been loving of this country. mr. king, who worked for the common good as we have tried to work together. it has not been a perfect upity because we had disagreements. and many of us disagree in the interpretation of democracy and civil liberties, but we all believe in one nation under

god. but more importantly the security of this nation. mr. thompson, i want to thank you for allowing me to serve with you and for your leadership. it is in that spirit that i rise today to speak to h.r. 2857 which amends the implementation recommendations of the 9/11 commission act of 2007. and i might just say, mr. turner, that there were those of us who were here -- and you come from new york so i know more than likely there were people in and around your area even though you're upstate new york, in the queens area, excuse me, who lost their lives or family members and so we acknowledge the regions that were impacted from boston to new york to pennsylvania and certainly those families whose family members were on those airlines. we understand but cannot feel the deep pain that they have today. the 9/11 commission, of course,

came about mainly through the many families that walked the halls and let me, of course, acknowledge those families who even in their pain again came to the halls of congress and asked us to do something. and so this is particular legislation that's amending the 9/11 commission act of 2007 to allow grants that are to be eligible for public transportation agencies, for the security improvements to be used for specialized patrol teams including the sustainment of such teams without fiscal year limitation as long as the agency applying for grant funds smits a sustainment plan for maintaining in future years the capability or the capacity achieved with these funds. that is a good step. it allows local jurisdictions to expand their services as long as they're able to sustain it. in january, 2007, soon after democrats took control of the house after being in the minority, i joined with my

colleagues across both sides of the aisle and we passed the 9/11 commission act of 2007. this strengthened our homeland security efforts, specifically the 9/11 act establishes the transportation security grant programs which provides a vital source of funding for our transportation systems across the united states. shortly thereafter i remember a conference where the house and senate came together and i remember the opportunity to establish transportation security centers of excellence. i am grateful that we established one in texas southern university historically black college among other historically black colleges where we looked at ways of improving transportation security. having just been briefed by texas southern university, i know that they are finishing their work, and i want to thank the team that led on that program. those funds were truly used productively, efficiently and effectively to provide new

technology and -- efficiently and effectively to provide new technology and new techniques on how we can truly protect america. since the demise of osama bin laden, led by the outstanding military of the united states of america, goided, directed, of course, by the commander -- guided, directed, of course, by the commander in chief, president obama, and the national security agency that provided all of the guidance for this enormous task, it has been revealed in the public domain that terrorists continue to be interested in developing plots to sabotage mass transit systems and of course the aviation system. this threat, however, is not new. today, as i indicated, marks the 11th anniversary since the 9/11 attacks and as such we must commemorate the men and women we lost on that day. we also have the responsibility to make sure that we do not allow another catastrophic love of life bike the one we -- loss of life like the one we faced that day.

of course during the years since 9/11 we have seen incidents in london and spain. we've seen incidents in mumbai. tragic incidents on mass transits. we've seen the individual efforts to bring down another airline over american soil or certainly en route to the united states of america. therefore, it is imperative that we, congress, examine how the department of homeland security and the transportation security administration are addressing the current and evolving threat to our transportation systems and continue to support programs that have yielded a positive security impact such as t.s.a.'s transportation security grant program. i have seen in my own transit system the utilization of these funds. i have seen the ultimatization as it's been very effective in k-9 units. let come together to say, the frontliners, meaning the united states military, then, of

course, the men and women who overlap in jurisdiction under homeland security, the many different law enforcements that every day work on the border, work on internal enforcement, work at airports, coalesce and collaborate with the f.b.i. and d.e.a. and a.t.f. and others around the question of security. i am glad these programs are being expanded for security purposes, for efficiency purposes, for utilization of our tax dollars in the right way. and that is why i'm pleased to see the majority -- that the majority and the ranking member, along with members of the democratic part of the committee, at my request, in submission of an amendment, accepted my amendment during committee consideration to authorize $400 million for the transportation security grant program for f.y. 2012 and f.y. 2013. this funding will ensure that transportation agencies have the resources needed to secure our public and mass transit systems.

i would argue that it complements what we're doing in aviation, which together maintains the nucleus, if you will, of transportation security. so i'm hoping that this will move quickly through the united states senate and find itself on the president's desk. it is crucial. i then hope that my colleagues can come together for us to put on the floor the transportation security administration re-authorization. we've done it before. i know we can do it now. and i ask my colleagues to come together in the name not only of security but the families, the 9/11 commission who now bear the brunt of that tragic day along with so many others. thank you to our first responders and of course to the men and women who now serve around the world and those who have come home. i ask my colleagues to support h.r. 3857. with that i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. the gentleman reserves? the gentleman reserves.

mr. thompson: i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york. mr. turner: mr. speaker, i have no more speakers. if the gentleman from mississippi has no further speakers, i am prepared to close once the gentleman does. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. mr. thompson: i have no further speakers, if the jell has no further speakers, i'm prepared to close. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. thompson: i yield myself such time as i may consume. on this day above all others, we turn our thoughts to those lost in the tragic events of 9/11. it is unfortunate that the republican leadership of the house has decided not to continue this body's tradition of considering a resolution to commemorate first responders, the victims of the attack and members of the armed forces serving at home and abroad. i urge my colleagues to join me in calling for the consideration of a 9/11

resolution and support h.r. 3857. h.r. 3857 authorizes funds critical to ensuring our nation's transportation systems are secure. it does so to the tune of $400 million. dollars that state and local jurisdictions desperately need. with that, mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york. mr. turner: i urge members to support the bill and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the question is, will the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 3857 as amended? those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair -- 2/3 being in the affirmative. the gentleman from mississippi. mr. thompson: on that, i request the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays are requested. those in favor of taking the vote by the yeas and nays will rise and remain standing until counted. a sufficient number having risen, the yeas and nays are

ordered. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, further proceedings on this question will be postponed. for what purpose does the gentleman from illinois seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i move that the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 6028 as amended. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 6028, a bill to authorize the assistant secretary of homeland security, transportation security administration to modify screening requirements for checked baggage arriving from preclearance airports and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from illinois, mr. walsh, and the gentleman from mississippi, mr. thompson, will each control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from illinois.

mr. walsh: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. walsh: i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. walsh: mr. speaker, earlier this year, i introduced h.r. 6028, the no hassle flying act which is a simple bill that streamlines baggage security measures for international flights. over the past decade, the u.s. customs and border patrol has designated 14 international airports as preclearance airports. they are located in the caribbean and ireland and continue to exhibit comparable security standards to ours here in the united states. when passengers originate from one of these airports into the u.s., they are not required to go through security because they have been fully vetted.

unfortunately, an ambiguity in u.s. law does not exempt their bags as well. u.s. law today requires all baggage entering the united states to be rescreened by a t.s.a. agent, regardless of where it originates. that means that passengers often on short or late night layover -- layovers must exit security, claim their brags -- bags from baggage claim, recheck them and go through security again this double security does not equal double safety, it equals missed flights, more hassles, and wastes taxpayer dollars. therefore all this bill does is give c.b.p. and t.s.a. the authority to exempt baggage coming from one of of those 14 preclearance airports from being rescreened as well this issue was brought to my attention by t.s.a. and h.r. 6028 as has come together with a great deal of their help. i would like to also especially thank the staffs of

representatives thompson and sheila jackson lee for helping improve upon this bill. with their help, h.r. 6028 has been redrafted to clarify the intent of the bill which is that baggage originating only from preclearance airports can enter the united states without being rescreened. as t.s.a. and c.b.p. gravitate toward more efficient risk-based security measures instead of 100% blanket check, type of bipartisan legislation will make that process easier. it will also save travelers time and a lot of security officers to -- and allow security officers to focus on higher risk baggage from overseas location. i want to thank subcommittee chairman rogers and his staff for their assistance on the billism urge members to vote in support and reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from mississippi. mr. thompson: i rise in support

of h.r. 6028, the no hassle flying act of 2012, and yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. thompson: mr. speaker, while i support the legislation we are considering today i'm concerned that on this, the anniversary of the terrorist attacks of september 11, we're not considering a bipartisan package of legislation. on this day 11 years ago, our couldn'ty ry was attacked and came together like never before to face the challenges of rebuilding and restructuring our security systems. with the creation of the 9/11 commission, the transportation security administration, and ultimately the department of homeland security, we demonstrated that homeland security is an american issue, not a partisan one. why, then, i must ask are we not considering a bipartisan package of legislative proposals that have previously received the unanimous support of the committee on homeland

security. why is this bill, which never received committee consideration being put on the house floor ahead of h.r. 1165, the transportation security administration ombudsman act this bill introduced by representative jackson lee received the unanimous support of the committee on homeland security. despite that, it has sat idle on the union calendar for over 10 months. why are we not considering h r. 6328, a thoughtful proposal introduced by representative her rble that would require unclaim -- t.s.a. to transfer unclaimed clothing found at the airport to veterans groups. i could think of no more appropriate legislation for

this body to consider today than a bill aimed at supporting our slet rans. mr. speaker, i support the bill today because it is a common sense proposal that will make air travel more convenient for a select few and has the potential to enhance efficiencies. when we can eliminate duplicative screening without compromising security, i lend my support. accordingly, i support this legislation that the obama administration proposed and the gentleman from illinois, representative walsh, introduced. with that, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from illinois. mr. walsh: mr. speaker, i'm prepared to close and reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from mississippi. mr. thompson: mr. speaker, i yield as much time as she may consume to the gentlelady from texas, ms. jackson lee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from texas is recognized. ms. jackson lee: let me thank

the ranking member for his courtesies of extending time and let me acknowledge the gentleman from illinois for the work on this bill and working with my office. at the first glance, though this has been proposed by the obama administration, one would wonder why we were listing any oversight over baggage but this is a process, i think, in compliance with all our commitment to safety and security and in particular on this day. i do appreciate the fact that there are certain airports which this will cover, that this responds in particular to friends to the north of us, canada, which has the most sophisticated technology, and a number of other airports. also, i think because of the oversight of the secretary of

homeland security in case there is a need to review this particular process which allows for a bag of an entering person to continue on with them as they come into the country going on to their domestic location. this is again an item of trust but also an item of technology and an item of oversight. this is an administrative proposal that came by way of the white house in order to establish an administrative process by which the flying public can travel with a minimum of disruption. i always emphasize the importance of ensuring that highest of responsibilities, the security of nation. we have a responsibility to ensure that security is not

compromised. the obama administration has taken great strides in enhancing our aviation security. though osama bin laden, as i repeated before on this floor, is dead, the threat to our aviation security continues to evolve pause we're well aware of franchise terrorism. not only did the administration lead a successful attack to remove one of the most successful terrorists in the world, the obama administration has taken steps to address the safety of the flying public. in january they will screen 100% of cargo aboard passenger flights traveling in the united states and those inbound to the united states from foreign countries. this is a note worthy accomplishment since several touted that it could not be done. it's a day of celebration. it's something the 9/11 families welcome. today marks 11 years since we

marked a devastating loss of life. it marked all our lives by exposing doubts. but as i indicated, this is a great country and we continue to emphasize not only our democracy but our rights along with our security. there's no doubt today that we are resilient and that we are survivors. let's not forget the progress we've made in transportation security policies and we must don't support measures that take us forward. that is why i support h.r. 6028 and ask that my colleagues do so because not only does it help to expedite, it helps to be efficient, but it is in conjunction with security. that is the right step and a collaborative way we can work together. again, i have support -- i ask support for this legislation and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. the gentleman from mississippi. mr. thompson: i have no more speakers if the gentleman from illinois has no speakers, i'm pr